UNIVERSITY  OF 

LIJ3HAHY 


G-ift   of  LIrs.   Edwin  H.  \Varner  from 
her  husband fs   library. 


January     1928 


GIFT   OF 
Dean  Derleth 


ENGINEERING  LIBRARY 


or 

'ARTMENT  OF  CIVIL 

CALIFORNIA 


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WITH    THE   STARS 

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THE  CHIEF  BEAUTIES  OF 

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THE     STARRY     HEAVENS     AS 

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SEEN  WITH  THE  NAKED  EYE 

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BY 

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GARRETT    P.    SERVISS 

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AUTHOR  OF 

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"ASTRONOMY  WITH  THE  NAKED  EYE" 

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"  CURIOSITIES  OF  THE  SKY  "  ETC. 

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WITH    MAPS  SHOWING  THE   ASPECT   OF 

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THE  SKY  IN  EACH  OF  THE  FOUR  SEASONS 

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AND  CHARTS  REVEALING  THE  OUTLINES 

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OF    THE     CONSTELLATIONS    AND     THE 

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DESIGNATIONS  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  STARS 

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NEW    YORK   AND   LONDON 

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HARPER  &  BROTHERS  PUBLISHERS 

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M  C  M  X 

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Copyright,  1910,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS 

Published  September,  1910. 
Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


ENGINEERING  LIBRARY 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

PREFACE 7 

INTRODUCTION 9 

T.     THE  EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  VERNAL  EQUINOX    ...  21 

II.  THE  EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  SUMMER  SOLSTICE    ...  50 

III.  THE  EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  AUTUMNAL  EQUINOX  .     .  71 

IV.  THE  EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  WINTER  SOLSTICE    ...  93 

V.  THE  PLANETS 118 

APPENDIX  .     .     .     .     .   .;     .     . 129 

PRONUNCIATION  OF  STAR  AND  CONSTELLATION  NAMES  141 

INDEX *''•'•     •     •     •     •     •     •     •  *4 


868991 


LIST   OF   CHARTS 

PAGE 

CHART  I.  THE  VERNAL  EVENING  SKY  .  .'  ,  .  .  .  23 

CHART  II.  THE  SUMMER  EVENING  SKY 51 

CHART  III.  THE  AUTUMN  EVENING  SKY  .* 73 

CHART  IV.  THE  WINTER  EVENING  SKY  .  ,  .  .  .  .  95 
CHART  V.  THE  FIRST  Six  HOURS  FROM  THE  VERNAL 

EQUINOX      .     .     .     ...     ...    .     .     .     134 

CHART  VI.  FROM  VI  H.  TO  XII  H.  FROM  THE  VERNAL 

EQUINOX     .     .     .     .     ...     .     .     ._    .     135 

CHART  VII.  FROM  XII  H.  TO  XVIII  H.  FROM  THE  VERNAL 

EQUINOX      .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     ...     136 

CHART  VIII.  FROM  XVIII  H.  TO  XXIV  H.  FROM  THE 

VERNAL  EQUINOX  .  .  ;  .  .  .  .  .  137 
CHART  IX.  POLAR  CONSTELLATIONS  FROM  VI  H.  TO 

XVIII  H.  .  .  -  .-  .  , 138 

CHART  X.  POLAR  CONSTELLATIONS  FROM  XVIII  H.  TO 

VI  H.     .     .     .     ....     .     ....     139 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  represents  an  attempt  to  cultivate  the 
love  of  the  stars,  and  to  offer  a  guiding  hand  to 
all  those  who  are  willing  to  believe  that  some  of  the 
most  exquisite  joys  of  life  are  to  be  found,  like  scat- 
tered and  unregarded  gems,  waiting  to  be  picked  up 
by  any  chance  wayfarer  who,  without  special  knowl- 
edge, or  optical  aids,  or  mathematical  attainments, 
or  any  of  the  paraphernalia  or  advantages  of  the  pro- 
fessional astronomer,  will  simply  turn  his  eyes  to  the 
sky  and  open  his  mind  to  its  plain  teachings  and  its 
supernal  inspirations. 

The  writer's  only  real  excuse  for  appearing  again 
in  this  particular  field  is  that  he  has  never  yet  finished 
a  book,  and  seen  it  go  forth,  without  feeling  that  he 
had  overlooked,  or  cast  aside,  or  of  necessity  omitted 
a  multitude  of  things  quite  as  interesting  and  impor- 
tant as  any  he  had  touched  upon.  Accordingly,  he 
yields  once  more  to  the  lure  of  this  inexhaustible  and 
illimitable  subject,  and  strives  again  to  find  expression 
for  the  thoughts  which  it  continually  awakens,  and 
to  exhibit,  however  imperfectly,  the  endless  proces- 
sion of  marvels  which  stream  before  him  who  knows 
and  loves  the  stars  like  a  dazzling  riviere  of  brilliants. 
2  7 


PREFACE 

This  book  in  no  way  duplicates  another  work  of  the 
same  hand,  Astronomy  with  the  Naked  Eye.  In  that 
the  effort  was  to  revive  the  romance  of  the  constella- 
tions by  retelling  their  fascinating  history,  their 
mythology,  their  immemorial  legends  and  traditions, 
and  indicating  their  poetic  background  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  imaginary  figures  which,  "from  times  of 
which  the  memory  of  man  runneth  not  to  the  con- 
trary," have  been  associated  with  them;  in  this  the 
writer  tries  to  draw  the  reader  into  more  intimate 
relations  with  the  stars  by  dwelling  upon  their  in- 
dividual peculiarities  and  beauties,  and  the  impres- 
sions Which  either  singly  or  in  constellated  groups  they 
make  upon  the  mind  of  the  beholder.  Surely  there  is 
not  another  field  of  human  contemplation  so  won- 
drously  rich  as  astronomy!  It  is  so  easy  to  reach,  so 
responsive  to  every  mood,  so  stimulating,  uplifting, 
abstracting,  and  infinitely  consoling.  Everybody  may 
not  be  a  chemist,  a  geologist,  a  mathematician,  but 
everybody  may  be  and  ought  to  be,  in  a  modest,  per- 
sonal way,  an  astronomer,  for  star-gazing  is  a  great 
medicine  of  the  soul.  There  is  the  writer's  text. 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  charts  illustrating  this  book  have  been  drawn 
by  the  writer  especially  to  meet  the  needs  of  be- 
ginners—of those  who,  feeling  what  a  void  in  their 
intellectual  life  ignorance  of  the  stars  has  created, 
would  now  fill  that  void,  and  thus  round  out  their 
spiritual  being  with  some  knowledge  of  Nature  on  her 
most  majestic  and  yet  most  beautiful  and  winning 
side. 

Qn  account  of  the  necessarily  diminutive  scale  of 
the  charts,  everything  has  been  omitted  from  them 
which  did  not  seem  essential.  But  for  the  purpose 
in  view  they  gain  by  this  process  of  exclusion,  for 
with  more  details  they  would  have  been  confusing. 
It  is  the  broad,  general  aspect  of  the  sky  with  which 
the  beginner  must  first  familiarize  himself.  At  the 
start  the  heavens  appear  to  him  to  be  filled  with  an 
innumerable  multitude  qf  scintillating  sparks,  scat- 
tered everywhere  in  disorder.  But  with  a  little  atten- 
tion he  perceives  that  there  is  discipline  in  this  host, 
and  immediately  the  discovery  gives  him  pleasure 
and  awakens  his  admiration,  as  the  perception  of 
order  always  does.  The  great  leaders  of  the  fir- 
tnament  come  forth,  unmistakable,  plainly  recogniza- 

9 


INTRODUCTION 


Me,  and  tHereuppn  the  rank  and  file  fall  into  their 
[$£<&&."•  -^Cheli/ibhecineffable  beauty  of  the  whole  as- 
'semblage  bursts  like  a  revelation  upon  the  mind. 
This  revelation  is  not  for  the  dull  in  spirit,  but  he 
who  has  once  had  it  becomes  henceforth,  and  even 
in  spite  of  previous  prejudice  or  indifference,  a  dev- 
otee of  the  stars,  with  a  zeal  flaming  brighter  with 
every  swing  of  the  pendulum  of  his  years. 

In  the  four  circular  charts  representing  the  aspect 
of  the  heavens  respectively  at  the  Vernal  Equinox, 
the  Summer  Solstice,  the  Autumnal  Equinox,  and  the 
Winter  Solstice,  few  stars  fainter  than  the  fourth  mag- 
nitude are  included,  and  not  all  even  of  that  mag- 
nitude, because  the  sole  purpose  is  to  enable  the 
beginner  to  recognize  the  constellations  by  their  char- 
acteristic groupings  of  stars  and  their  relative  situa- 
tions in  the  sky.  The  insuperable  difficulty  is  to  pict- 
ure the  hemispherical  sky  on  a  flat  page.  A  certain 
amount  of  distortion  cannot  be  avoided,  and  the 
reader's  imagination  must  supply  the  effect  of  per- 
spective. He  must  always  remember  that  the  centre 
of  the  chart  stands  for  the  middle  of  the  sky  over- 
head,  and  that  the  circular  boundary  represents  the 
full  round  of  the  horizon,  from  east  through  south, 
west,  and  north,  to  east  again.  If  he  is  comparing 
the  chart  with  the  sky  while  facing  south,  he  should 
hold  the  chart  upright  as  it  is  printed  in  the  book; 
if  he  makes  the  comparison  while  facing  north,  he 
should  turn  the  chart  upside  down.  If  he  lies  on 
his  back  with  his  head  to  the  north  (and  in  no  other 

10 


INTRODUCTION 

way  can  one  get  so  vast  an  impression  of  the  starry 
dome),  and  holds  the  chart  over  his  head,  it  will 
represent  the  entire  vault  of  the  firmament. 

The  names  of  the  constellations  will  be  found  on 
the  charts,  and  also  the  individual  names  of  the  most 
celebrated  stars,  but  the  constellation  boundaries  are 
not  shown,  because,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  the  pre- 
cise limits  of  a  constellation  are  not  important  for 
the  beginner  to  know,  and  to  search  for  them  would 
simply  lead  to  confusion.  As  he  progresses  in  his 
knowledge  of  the  sky  any  uncertainty  about  the  con- 
stellation to  which  particular  stars  belong  can  be 
settled  by  consulting  the  six  charts,  drawn  to  a  larger 
scale,  at  the  end  of  the  book.  On  these  charts  more 
of  the  small  stars  are  shown,  and  in  addition  there 
will  be  found  the  Greek  letters  which  astronomers 
attach  to  the  principal  stars  of  each  constellation  for 
the  sake  of  ready  identification.  On  these  charts, 
too,  the  constellation  boundaries  will  be  seen,  in- 
dicated by  dotted  lines.  The  tracing  of  these  lines 
is  more  or  less  a  matter  of  arbitrary  choice.  There 
are  no  international  boundary  disputes  among  the 
heavenly  powers,  and  the  frontier  lines  may  run  any- 
where, provided  only  that  they  do  not  include  in  one 
constellation  any  stars  which  by  common  usage,  or 
prescription,  belong  to  another.  The  constellations 
have  been  reshaped  many  times  in  the  past.  The 
"geography  of  the  heavens"  has  known  as  many 
changes  as  that  of  the  earth,  the  ambition  of  the  old 
astronomers  being  sometimes  as  insatiable  as  that  of 

ii 


INTRODUCTION 

founders  of  terrestrial  kingdoms  and  empires.  About 
three  centuries  ago  the  starry  sky  was  "Christianized," 
St.  Matthew,  St.  Peter,  St.  John,  St.  Joseph,  St. 
Michael,  St.  Stephen,  St.  Gabriel,  St.  Mary  Magdalen, 
St.  Katharine,  together  with  Noah,  Aaron,  Job,  and 
Eve,  taking  the  places  of  the  heathen  gods,  goddesses, 
and  heroes  in  the  sky,  while  Saturn  became  Adam, 
Jupiter  Moses,  Mars  Joshua,  Mercury  Elias,  Venus 
St.  John  Baptist  ( !) ,  the  Moon  the  Virgin  Mary,  and 
the  Sun  Christ  (see  Appendix).  It  is  not  ah  uh- 
heard-bf  thing  in  uranography  (" description  of  the 
heavens";  analogue  to  geography)  for  a  star,  or  a 
group  of  stars,  to  change  allegiance,  or  even  to  belong 
to  two  constellations  at  the  same  time.  The  bright 
star  Alpheratz  is  still  an  example  of  this  double 
nationality,  for,  although  it  shines  on  the  head  of 
Andromeda  and  is  her  jewel  par  excellence,  yet  her 
neighbor  Pegasus  also  lays  claim  to  the  star,  and 
uranographers  so  far  admit  the  justice  of  his  claim 
that  they  call  Alpheratz,  according  to  circumstances, 
either  Alpha  (a)  Andromedae  or  Delta  (S)  Pegasi. 

For  many  of  their  purposes  astronomers  find  no  use 
for  the  constellations,  preferring  to  identify  the  stars 
by  their  position  in  right  ascension  and  declination 
(equivalent  to  longitude  and  latitude),  and  in  the 
great  modern  Durchmusterungs,  or  star  catalogues,  this 
plan  is  universally  followed.  Still,  the  constellations 
afford  a  very  convenient  classification  of  the  stars, 
and  probably  they  will  never  be  abandoned  even  by 
professional  astronomers;  while  from  another  stand- 

12 


INTRODUCTION 

point  they  never  can  be  abandoned,  because  they  are 
among  the  most  ancient  and  precious  of  human  docu- 
ments, valuable  for  history  and  for  the  understanding 
of  mythology,  and  resistlessly  charming  in  their  poetic 
associations. 

But,  to  return  to  the  description  of  the  charts,  the 
reader  should  be  informed  as  to  the  meaning  of  the 
lines  shown  upon  them,  and  of  the  indications  found 
round  their  borders.  In  the  four  circular  charts  the 
closed  curve  crossing  the  sky  from  right  to  left  repre- 
sents the  equator  of  the  heavens,  which  is  directly 
over  the  equator  of  the  earth;  the  vertical  line 
through  the  centre  shows  the  meridian,  or  north  and 
south  line,  which,  so  to  speak,  follows  the  observer 
wherever  he  may  go,  occupying  the  same  place  in  the 
sky,  at  the  same  hour  of  local  time,  in  all  longitudes ; 
and  the  dotted  curve  is  the  ecliptic,  or  the  apparent 
annual  path  of  the  sun  through  the  sky.  The  cross- 
ing points  of  the  equator  and  the  ecliptic  are  respec- 
tively the  Vernal  and  the  Autumnal  Equinox,  where 
the  sun  is  at  the  two  dates  in  the  year  when  day  and 
night  are  of  equal  length;  and  the  farthest  northern 
and  southern  points  of  the  ecliptic  are  respectively 
the  Summer  and  the  Winter  Solstice,  where  the  sun 
is  at  the  times  of  the  longest  and  the  shortest  days 
in  our  hemisphere.  These  four  fundamental  points 
are  all  shown  on  the  charts.  Around  the  border  the 
hours  of  right  ascension  are  indicated  by  Roman 
numerals.  Each  hour  corresponds  to  15°  of  space,  or 
one  twenty-fourth  of  a  circle  of  the  sphere.  The 

13 


INTRODUCTION 

hours  begin  at  the  Vernal  Equinox,  which  is  graphi- 
cally described  as  the  "Greenwich  of  the  Sky." 

In  the  larger-scale  charts  at  the  end  of  the  book  the 
hours  of  right  ascension  are  indicated  at  the  bottom, 
and  the  degrees  of  north  and  south  declination  (the 
sign  +  standing  for  north  and  —  for  south)  are  shown 
at  the  side.  In  both  cases  the  declination  is  reckoned 
from  the  equator.  The  four  oblong  charts  of  this 
series,  taken  together,  represent  the  entire  circuit  of 
sky  between  40°  north  and  40°  south  declination, 
and  the  two  semicircular  charts,  taken  together, 
show  the  stars  within  50°  of  the  north  pole.  Thus 
the  entire  set  of  six  charts  exhibits  the  complete  dome 
of  the  heavens  from  the  north  pole  to  40°  south  decli- 
nation. In  passing  from  the  oblong  to  the  semi- 
circular charts  it  is  only  necessary  to  bring  the  hours 
of  right  ascension  into  accord.  In  the  semicircular 
charts  the  hours  will  be  found  round  the  curved 
borders. 

Each  of  the  four  circular  charts  in  the  body  of  the 
book  represents  the  aspect  of  the  evening  sky  at  one 
of  the  equinoctial  or  solstitial  epochs.  To  be  more 
precise,  these  charts  show  the  sky  as  it  appears,  at 
about  the  latitude  ot  New  York,  at  10  P.M.,  on,  re- 
spectively, March  2oth  (the  Vernal  Equinox),  June 
2ist  (the  Summer  Solstice),  September  23d  (the 
Autumnal  Equinox),  and  December  22d  (the  Winter 
Solstice) . 

But  the  reader  must  not  think  that  it  is  necessary 
to  confine  himself  to  the  exact  latitude,  date,  or  hour 

14 


INTRODUCTION 

just  mentioned.  Undoubtedly  it  would  be  better  for 
the  beginner  to  do  that  approximately,  but  it  is  not 
essential.  The  effect  of  a  change  of  latitude  is,  per- 
haps, the  least  important.  If  the  observer  is  farther 
south  than  about  40°  north  latitude,  the  southern  stars 
will  appear  higher  in  the  sky  than  they  are  shown  in 
the  charts,  and  some  of  the  stars  close  to  the  northern 
horizon  will  sink  from  view.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
he  is  farther  north  (as  in  Canada  or  Northern  Europe) , 
the  northern  stars  will  appear  higher,  and  some  of 
those  near  the  southern  horizon  will  be  invisible. 
But  if  he  confines  his  attention  to  the  stars  and  con- 
stellations represented  in  the  central  parts  of  the 
charts  (which  he  should,  in  any  case,  do  for  other 
reasons),  the  effect  of  the  shift  due  to  difference  of 
latitude  will  not  be  found  very  serious. 

As  to  the  effects  of  a  departure  from  the  hours  and 
dates  for  which  the  charts  are  drawn,  they,  too,  can 
readily  be  allowed  for.  Suppose  that,  without  chang- 
ing the  date,  the  reader  makes  his  observations  an 
hour  earlier  than  that  given,  say  at  9  P.M.,  March  2oth. 
Then  he  will  find  that  some  of  the  eastern  stars,  seen 
along  the  left-hand  edge  of  the  chart  when  it  is  held 
upright,  have  not  yet  come  into  view  above  the 
horizon,  while  other  stars,  not  seen  on  the  chart  drawn 
for  that  date,  are  visible  above  the  horizon  in  the 
west.  To  the  stars  thus  carried  out  of,  or  brought 
into,  view  he  should  pay  no  attention;  he  will  find 
them  again  on  other  charts  when  they  are  better 
placed  for  observation. 

15 


INTRODUCTION 

Next,  suppose  that  without  changing  the  hour  of 
observation  he  changes  the  date,  and  instead  of  ob- 
serving on  the  2oth  pf  March  he  observes  on  the  5th. 
Then  he  will  notice  precisely  the  same  difference  tjiat 
was  manifest  when  his  observation  was  made  an  hour 
too  early  on  March  2oth: — i.  e.,  some  of  the  eastern 
stars  on  the  chart  will  not  yet  have  risen,  and  other 
stars,  not  on  that  particular  chart,  will  be  visible  in 
the  west.  Although  at  first  all  this  may  be  a  little 
confusing  to  the  beginner,  he  will  soon  find  that  he 
can  make  due  allowance  for  the  changes  of  aspect. 
The  whole  matter  becomes  very  simple  when  it  is 
remembered  that  the  heavens  have  a  double  revolu- 
tion toward  the  west;  one  of  these  revolutions,  due 
to  the  earth's  rotation  on  its  axis,  being  effected  in 
twenty-four  hours,  and  the  other,  due  to  the  earth's 
revolution  round  the  sun,  requiring  an  entire  year. 
One  hour  of  the  daily  revolution  (represented  by  an 
hour  of  right  ascension)  produces  the  same  effect  on 
the  position  of  the  stars  as  two  weeks  of  the  annual 
revolution;  or  two  hours  of  the  first  correspond  to 
one  month  of  the  second. 

If  the  observations  are  made  at  a  later  date  or  a 
later  hour  than  those  indicated  on  the  chart,  the 
changes  will  occur  in  the  reverse  order — i.  e.,  western 
stars  will  have  disappeared  and  eastern  stars  will  have 
come  up  into  view. 

I  particularly  wish  to  impress  upon  the  beginner  the 
needlessness  of  being  troubled  about  these  discrep- 
ancies. He  can  avoid  all  possibility  of  perplexity  by 

16 


INTRODUCTION 

fitting  his  observations  to  the  exact  times  of  the 
charts.  As  I  have  already  said,  a  difference  of  a  few 
degrees  in  his  latitude  on  the  earth  may  be  disre- 
garded. The  charts,  with  a  slight  allowance  for  the 
shift  of  position  of  the  extreme  northern  and  southern 
stars,  are  available  for  any  of  the  middle  latitudes  of 
the  northern  hemisphere.  And  if  the  effects  of  a 
change  of  hour  or  date  prove  in  the  least  confusing, 
the  beginner  has  only  to  await  the  given  date  and  the 
given  hour,  and  all  will  be  clear.  Then,  as  soon  as 
he  has  become  familiar  with  a  few  of  the  leading  con- 
stellations, the  others,  which  in  themselves  are  not  so 
easily  recognizable,  will  fall  into  their  proper  places, 
after  which  there  can  be  no  possibility  of  confusion. 
In  fact,  much  less  effort  is  required  to  become 
familiar  with  the  aspect  of  the  starry  sky  than  is 
demanded  for  a  similar  acquaintance  with  the  funda- 
mental data  of  botany,  mineralogy ;  geology,  or  any 
other  bf  the  observational  branches  of  natural  science. 
It  was  at  first  the  intention  to  indicate  the  course 
of  the'  Milky  Way  on  the  circular  charts  by  dotted 
outlines,  but  this  was  abandoned  in  view  of  the  re- 
stricted space.  Any  one  can  easily  trace  the  mean- 
derings  and  branchings  of  this  starry  scarf,  the 
contemplation  of  which  carries  the  mind  to  greater 
heights  of  intellectual  perspective  than  any  other 
phenomenon  of  the  world  of  matter.  If  the  reader 
has  the  good -fortune  to  be  situated  where  arti- 
ficial lights  do  not  interfere  with  the  splendor  of  the 
heavens,  he  can  observe  the  course  of  the  Milky 

17 


INTRODUCTION 

Way  on  any  clear  night;  and,  if  he  possesses  skill  in 
delineation,  he  may  make  charts  of  it  and  its  off- 
shoots which  will  be  of  real  value.  Better  still  if 
he  has  the  means  of  photographing  it.  Here  is  a 
non-mathematical  field  of  astronomy  which  is  ripe 
for  the  harvest,  and  in  which  the  laborers  are  few. 
The  Milky  Way  is  so  full  of  wonders  that  centuries  of 
observation  and  study  cannot  exhaust  them.  There 
is  nothing  more  impressive  than  to  see  how  it  often 
follows  curves  of  lucid  stars  as  if  some  mysterious 
attraction  were  drawing  it  toward  them;  and  yet  it 
itself  consists  of  stars. 

A  few  more  words  of  practical  advice  to  the  be- 
ginner. Let  him,  at  first,  confine  himself  to  the 
bright  and  conspicuous  stars  and  the  striking  groups 
shown  in  the  charts,  assigning  each  to  its  proper  con- 
stellation. When  he  has  become  familiar  with  these 
in  their  broadest  aspects,  he  can  turn  to  the  charts 
at  the  end  of  the  book  and  familiarize  himself  with 
the  constellation  boundaries.  After  that,  if  he  wishes 
to  go  further,  as  he  almost  certainly  will,  he  can 
obtain  a  large  star  atlas,  furnish  himself  with  a  tel- 
escope, and  open  up  a  new  side  of  his  life  which  will 
make  him  rejoice  to  be,  for  a  few  short  years,  a 
dweller  on  a  planet  inhabited  by  beings  intelligent 
enough  to  lift  their  eyes  above  the  horizon  and  to 
feed  their  minds  with  the  inspirations  of  the  uni- 
verse. 

Yet  another  thing,  which  may  be  a  novelty  to  many, 
and  which  is  sure  to  afford  unexpected  pleasure — 

18 


INTRODUCTION 

when  you  have  fairly  learned  the  constellations,  take 
a  mirror  and  study  them  by  reflection.  This  is  a 
counsel  of  intimacy.  Orion  will  seem  less  remote  and 
more  comprehensible  when  his  living  image  is  en- 
closed in  a  frame,  which  you  can  hold  on  your  lap 
like  an  album.  There  is  something  startling  in  the 
sight  of  the  starry  heavens  under  your  feet.  I  once 
enjoyed  the  sensation  in  perfection  while  stalking 
deer  in  a  boat  at  midnight  on  the  placid  bosom  of  a 
forest  pond.  The  water  was  as  motionless  as  so 
many  acres  of  black  glass,  and  I  forgot  to  look  for  the 
deer,  in  the  shaft  of  light  from  the  hooded  "flare" 
at  the  bow,  when  we  seemed  to  be  drifting  out  into 
an  ocean  of  ether,  in  the  middle  of  the  sky,  with  stars 
below  as  well  as  stars  above.  When  we  silently 
crossed  the  pond,  and  got  far  from  the  shores,  the 
sensation  was  overpowering;  it  took  one's  breath 
away.  We  drifted  right  over  the  Milky  Way,  and 
Vega,  Altair,  and  the  "Northern  Cross"  gleamed  be- 
neath the  keel.  Be  sure  that  your  mirror  is  freshly 
silvered  and  clean,  and  remember  the  reversals  of 
position  which  all  reflections  produce.  If  you  hold 
the  mirror  before  you  inclined  downward,  the  position 
of  objects  in  the  sky  will  be  reversed  top  for  bot- 
tom; if  you  hold  it  inclined  upward,  so  as  to  see 
objects  behind  your  head,  they  will  be  reversed  right 
for  left.  With  these  precautions  you  will  find  the 
mirror  a  great  convenience  for  studying  constella- 
tions which  are  nearly  overhead.  It  is  the  principle 
of  the  "diagonal  prism"  employed  with  telescopes, 

19 


INTRODUCTION 

and  of  the  hand-mirrors  used  by  many  visitors  at 
the  Vatican  Palace  to  view  with  comfort  the  ceiling 
pictures  of  Michael  Angelo  in  the  Sistine  Chapel. 
Thus  the  sky  becomes  an  atlas,  and  you  can  study  its 
living  charts  at  leisure. 


ROUND   THE    YEAR   WITH 
THE    STARS 


ROUND  THE 
YEAR  WITH  THE  STARS 


THE  EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  VERNAL  EQUINOX 

'"THE  year  has  its  morning  no  less  unmistakable 
1  in  its  characteristic  features  than  the  dawn  of 
the  day.  The  earth  and  all  of  its  inhabitants  feel 
the  subtle  influences  of  the  dawning  year,  and  Nature 
awakes  at  their  touch.  This  annual  morning  comes 
when  the  sun  transits  the  equator,  moving  north,  at 
the  beginning  of  his  long  summer  tour,  about  the 
2oth  of  March.  This  is  the  epoch  of  the  Vernal  Equi- 
nox, when  the  springs  of  life  begin,  once  more,  to  flow. 
Then  the  sun  truly  rises  on  the  northern  hemisphere. 
Then  the  mighty  world  of  the  north,  which  Provi- 
dence has  made  the  chief  abode  of  vital  organisms 
on  this  planet,  rouses  itself  and  shakes  off  the  apathy 
of  winter,  and  men,  animals,  and  plants,  each  after 
their  manner,  renew  their  activities,  and  in  many 

cases  their  very  existence.    This  annual  reawakening 
3  2I 


ROUND    THE     YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

is  one  of  the  profoundest  phenomena  of  nature,  and 
there  are  secrets  in  it  which  science  has  not  yet 
penetrated. 

Bliss  Carman  has  beautifully  pictured  the  terrestrial 
charms  of  the  vernal  season  in  his ' '  Spring's  Saraband ' ' : 

"Over  the  hills  of  April, 

With  soft  winds  hand  in  hand, 
Impassionate  and  dreamy-eyed 

Spring  leads  her  saraband. 
Her  garments  float  and  gather 

And  swirl  along  the  plain, 
Her  headgear  is  the  golden  sun, 

Her  cloak  the  silver  rain." 

But  why  do  not  the  poets  see  and  express  the 
hyperphysical  charm  of  the  spring  evenings?  When 
the  light  of  the  vernal  day  has  faded  the  stars  come 
forth,  and  in  the  quality  of  their  shining  reduplicate 
and  heighten  the  impressions  left  by  the  quickening 
landscapes.  More  than  half  is  lost  if  this  be  missed. 
But  perhaps  this  side  of  nature  is  too  transcendent 
even  for  poetry.  One  can  behold  but  not  tell  it. 
Emerson  has  come  nearest  to  its  expression,  and  he 
puts  it  in  prose: 

"  The  grass  grows,  the  buds  burst,  the  meadow  is  spotted 
with  fire  and  gold  in  the  tint  of  the  flowers.  The  air  is  full 
of  birds,  and  sweet  with  the  breath  of  the  pine,  the  balm- 
of-Gilead,  and  the  new  hay.  Night  brings  no  gloom  to  the 
heart  with  its  welcome  shade.  Through  the  transparent  dark- 
ness the  stars  pour  their  almost  spiritual  rays.  Man 
under  them  seems  a  young  child,  and  his  huge  globe  a  toy. 
The  cool  night  bathes  the  world  as  with  a  river,  and  pre- 
pares his  eyes  again  for  the  crimson  dawn." 

22 


CHART  I THE  VERNAL  EVENING  SK¥>'  ?  '^  ;  v/ 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  VERNAL  EQUINOX 

There  was  not  only  poetic  but  logical  fitness  in  the 
old  English  custom,  abandoned  since  1751,  of  dating 
the  opening  of  the  year  from  the  last  week  of  March. 
How  can  the  real  birth  of  the  year  be  imagined  to  oc- 
cur when  all  nature  is  still  deep  in  slumber  under  the 
January  snows  ?  The  seasons  are  manifestly  the  chil- 
dren of  the  sun,  waxing  and  waning  with  his  strength, 
and  surely  that  one  should  be  reckoned  the  eldest 
which  is  the  first  birth  of  his  vivific  springtime  rays. 
It  seems  remarkable  that  the  beginning  of  the  year  in 
ancient  times,  when  men  felt  more  keenly  than  we 
do  now  the  symbolism  of  natural  phenomena,  was 
not  more  frequently  fixed  at,  or  near,  the  Vernal 
Equinox,  and  I  suspect  some  defect  in  our  informa- 
tion on  this  subject.  In  Attica,  George  Cornewell 
Lewis  tells  us,  the  year  began  at  the  Summer  Solstice. 
But  this  was  to  make  the  second  of  the  sun's  seasonal 
offspring  the  senior,  thus  ignoring  the  just  claim  of 
the  true  heir,  the  season  of  buds.  In  Sparta  and 
Macedonia,  according  to  the  same  authority,  the  year 
began  with  the  Autumnal  Equinox,  which  was  still 
worse,  for  in  summer  the  year  is  at  the  zenith  of  its 
life,  while  in  autumn  it  is  already  stumbling  toward 
the  tomb.  In  Bceotia,  at  Delphi,  and  in  Bithynia 
they  contradicted  nature  more  decidedly,  as  we  do 
to-day,  by  making  the  year  begin  at  the  Winter 
Solstice,  when  the  chilled  world  is  yet  asleep.  The 
Romans  adopted  this  plan  eventually,  but  it  is  in- 
teresting to  observe  that  they  had  an  older  custom 
of  beginning  the  year  in  March,  which  many  cherished 

25 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

in  their  domestic  life  as  well  as  for  some  legal  pur- 
poses, after  the  lawful  opening  of  the  year  had  been 
fixed  on  the  ist  of  January.  And  finally  we  have  per- 
petuated the  illogical  system  of  absolutely  reversing 
nature's  rule  in  the  succession  of  the  seasons  by 
making  the  year  begin  about  nine  days  after  the 
Winter  Solstice.  But  in  spite  of  calendars  and  laws 
nature  prevails,  and  everybody  instinctively  feels 
that  the  true  beginning  of  the  year  is  in  the  sea- 
son when  the  currents  of  life  resume  their  youthful 
flow.  At  any  rate,  however  it  may  be  with  strictly 
terrestrial  affairs,  that  is  the  time  when  the  call  of 
the  stars  becomes  the  most  insistent  and  irresistible. 
Accordingly  the  epoch  of  the  Vernal  Equinox  is  chosen 
for  our  opening  chapter.  But  the  reader  at  the  com- 
mencement of  his  star-gazing  is  not  confined  to  this 
season;  he  can  begin  at  any  time  convenient  to  him. 
To  avoid  misapprehension  it  is  important  to  point 
out  that  our  concern  is  not  with  that  half  of  the 
heavens  which  the  sun  illumines  when  he  crosses 
the  equator,  coming  north,  at  the  Vernal  Equinox, 
but  with  the  diametrically  opposite  half,  where  in 
countless  multitudes  shine  his  fellow  suns — his  peers, 
his  inferiors,  and  his  superiors — turning  physical  night 
into  intellectual  day.  Accordingly,  in  Chart  I  we 
see  not  that  part  of  the  sky  which  contains  the  point 
called  the  Vernal  Equinox,  bujt  the  opposite  part, 
where  the  sun  pursues  his  course  when  he  is  declining 
from  the  Summer  Solstice  toward  the  Autumnal  Equi- 
nox. The  chart  represents  the  appearance  of  the 

26 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  VERNAL  EQUINOX 

sky  at  10  P.M.  on  the  2oth  of  March  (see  Introduction). 
It  also  represents  the  sky  as  it  appears  about  11.30 
P.M.  at  the  beginning  of  March,  about  9  P.M.  the  first 
week  of  April,  and  8  P.M.  about  April  2oth. 

Let  us,  then,  near  one  of  these  dates  and  hours,  go 
out-of-doors  and  transport  ourselves  to  the  universe. 
Why  does  not  everybody  feel  the  thrill  that  comes 
to  the  astronomer  when,  with  eager  expectation,  he 
watches  the  fading  sunset  light,  the  slow  withdrawal 
of  the  vast  curtain  of  illuminated  air  which  for  twelve 
hours  has  hidden  the  prodigious  marvel  of  the  spangled 
heavens,  and  the  first  peering  forth  of  the  great  stars  ? 
I  believe  that  everybody  does  feel  it  when  he  gives 
himself  the  opportunity  and  abandons  his  mind  to 
its  own  reflections — but  so  few  embrace  the  oppor- 
tunity or  encourage  the  reflections! 

Select,  if  possible,  a  high  place,  where  the  eyes  can 
range  round  the  whole  horizon  unobstructed.  Then 
try  to  seize  the  entire  view  at  once,  as  one  glances  for 
the  first  time  at  the  map  of  a  new  country.  Get  the 
ensemble  by  sweeping  all  around  the  sky,  not  pausing 
to  note  details,  but  catching  at  a  glance  the  location 
of  the  brighter  stars  and  those  that  form  striking 
groups.  Note  where  the  Milky  Way  runs,  a  faint, 
silvery  zone  at  this  season,  arched  across  the  western 
half  of  the  firmament,  hanging  like  starry  gossamers 
in  places,  brilliant  in  the  northwest,  but  becoming 
fainter  as  it  dips  toward  the  southwestern  horizon — 
a  mere  anticipation  of  its  summer  splendor,  hiding 
its  light  and  fading  away  as  it  approaches  the  im- 

27 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

perial  presence  of  Sirius.  Notice  the  great  hexagon 
of  first  magnitude  stars  that  surrounds  Orion  in  the 
west — Sirius,  Rigel,  Aldebaran,  Capella,  Castor  and 
Pollux,  and  Procyon  marking  the  angles,  and  Betel- 
geuse  glittering  not  far  from  the  centre  of  the  figure. 
Observe  Regulus  with  the  "Sickle"  of  Leo  on  the 
meridian.  Look  for  the  glimmer  of  the  "Beehive" 
in  Cancer,  between  Gemini  and  Leo,  and  for  the 
pentangular  head  of  Hydra  beneath  it.  Still  lower 
you  will  see  the  reddish  gleam  of  the  starry  serpent's 
heart,  Cor  Hydra3,  or  Alphard,  and  then,  running  east- 
ward, and  dipping  ever  nearer  the  horizon,  the  long, 
winding  line  of  his  stars  passing  under  the  overset 
cup  of  Crater  and  the  quadrilateral  of  Corvus,  the 
"Crow,"  until  they  disappear,  unended,  in  the  south- 
east, for  from  mid-heaven  to  the  horizon  there  is  not 
space  enough  to  display  all  of  these  beautiful  coils, 
which  take  a  kind  of  life  as  you  watch  them. 

Away  over  in  the  east,  close  to  the  ecliptic,  you  will 
see  Virgo  with  her  diamond,  Spica,  flashing  in  her 
hand.  You  are  now  facing  east;  to  your  left,  then, 
north  of  Spica,  glows  great  Arcturus,  with  his  attend- 
ants shaping  the  figure  of  Bootes.  Of  Arcturus,  a 
star  that  among  a  million  finds  no  rival,  we  shall  speak 
more  particularly  elsewhere.  Farther  to  the  left,  be- 
yond Bootes,  shines  the  exquisite  "Northern  Crown," 
Corona  Borealis.  That  too  will  claim  attention  in 
a  later  chapter.  The  square  of  Hercules  is  just  above 
the  horizon  below  the  Crown  in  the  northeast,  and 
to  its  left,  as  you  face  north,  is  seen  the  diamond- 

28 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  VERNAL  EQUINOX 

shaped  head  of  Draco,  the  " Great  Dragon"  that 
Athena  was  fabled  to  have  entangled  with  the  axis 
of  the  world.  His  stars  wind  upward  between  the 
"Dippers"— the  "Little  Dipper,"  which  has  the  Pole- 
star  at  the  end  of  its  handle,  and  the  "Great  Dipper," 
which,  brim  downward,  shines  east  of  the  meridian, 
almost  as  high  as  the  zenith,  if  you  are  as  far  north 
as  40°  or  more.  The  handle  of  the  "Great  Dipper" 
is  the  tail  of  Ursa  Major,  who  treads  lumberingly  about 
the  pole,  with  his  back  downward,  his  head  out-thrust 
west  of  the  meridian,  and  his  feet,  marked  by  three 
striking  pairs  of  stars,  up  in  the  middle  of  the  sky. 
On  the  meridian  south  of  Ursa  Major  stands  the 
"Sickle"  of  Leo  already  mentioned.  Away  round  in 
the  northwest,  beyond  Capella,  are  Perseus  and 
Cassiopeia,  immersed  in  the  Milky  Way. 

Having  fixed  the  location  and  general  appearance 
of  all  these  constellations  in  the  mind,  you  are  pre- 
pared to  study  them,  and  their  stars,  in  more  detail. 
Let  us  begin  in  the  east.  For  some  occult  reason  the 
rising  stars  always  seem  more  attractive  than  those 
that  are  near  setting.  In  the  east,  then,  the  eye  is 
at  once  drawn  to  the  beautiful  Spica,  which  the  im- 
passive, immemorial  Virgo  wears  as  her  only  orna- 
ment. It  is  a  fascinating  star  with  its  pure  white 
rays,  dashed  with  swift  gleams  of  exquisite  color  as 
the  atmospheric  waves  roll  over  it.  There  is  not  an- 
other equal  to  it  in  the  impression  of  purity  which 
it  gives.  We  may  imagine  that  some  dim  sense  of 
this  immaculate  quality  in  the  light  of  Spica  led  to 

29 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

the  naming  of  the  constellation  the  "Virgin,"  thus 
called  by  nearly  all  peoples,  each  in  its  own  lan- 
guage: UapOevos,  Kopjj,  Puella,  Kauni,  She-Sang-Neuy 
Pucella,  Vtirge,  M&den,  Jungfrau,  Virgine — all,  an- 
cient and  modern,  Greek,  Roman,  Indian,  Chinese, 
Norman,  French,  Anglo-Saxon,  German,  Italian, 
and  English  worshipping  together  at  this  shrine  of 
ideal  purity.  If  the  Assyrians  made  her  the  wife  of 
Bel  that  was  hardly  a  disparagement,  for  Bel  was  the 
sun.  So,  too,  the  identification  of  Virgo  with  the 
Greek  Persephone,  the  Roman  Ceres,  and  the  Jewish 
Bethula,  all  goddesses  concerned  with  the  harvest 
and  the  fertility  of  the  land,  in  no  way  detracted  from 
her  virginal  character,  nor  did  her  association  with 
Astraea,  the  goddess  of  justice. 

Beside  Spica,  Virgo  has  no  very  bright  stars,  and 
it  is  hardly  doubtful  that  the  imaginary  purity  as- 
cribed to  the  constellation  was  derived  entirely  from 
the  unsullied  whiteness  of  Spica.  While  gazing  at 
that  beautiful  star  all  of  these  associations,  coming 
from  times  so  remote  and  peoples  so  distant,  crowd 
into  the  mind,  increasing  the  interest  with  which  one 
regards  it.  The  nations  who  named  it  the  vernal 
star,  before  all  others,  have  gone  the  way  of  terres- 
trial things,  but  the  star  remains,  as  pearly  fair  as 
when  Aratus  sang  to  it: 

"Lo,  the  Virgin!  .  .  . 
Her  favor  be  upon  us!" 

Then  science  comes  to  carry  the  thoughts  to  grand- 
er, if  less  romantic,  heights.  Spica,  it  tells  us,  is  a 

30 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  VERNAL  EQUINOX 

sun  which  might  well  claim  to  be  included  in  New- 
comb's  wonderful  "XM"  class — i.e.,  stars  excelling 
our  sun  at  least  ten  thousand  times  in  splendor,  for,  7^ 
notwithstanding  the  brilliance  with  which  it  delights 
us,  it  is  so  remote  that  no  certain  estimate  of  its  dis- 
tance can  be  made,  its  parallax  escaping  measure- 
ment— what,  then,  must  be  the  intolerable  blaze  with 
which  it  illumines  its  immediate  neighborhood !  But 
when  Science  begins  her  revelations  no  man  can  fore- 
tell the  wonders  that  she  will  discover.  The  spec- 
troscope avers  that  Spica  is  speeding  hitherward  at 
a  pace  of  more  than  32,000  miles  per  hour!  Each 
night  that  star  is  almost  700,000  miles  nearer  than  it 
was  the  night  before,  and  yet  it  is  not  perceptibly 
brighter  than  it  was  in  the  days  of  Homer.  Such  are 
the  star  depths  !  Such  is  the  measureless  play- 
ground of  the  spinning  suns!  Then  Science,  inspired 
by  its  spectroscopic  sibyl,  whispers  another  startling 
word  in  our  ears:  That  core  of  white  fire  glow- 
ing so  softly  in  the  vernal  midnight  has  an  in- 
visible companion  star,  with  which  it  circles  in 
an  orbit  6,000,000  miles  in  diameter,  and  every 
four  days  they  complete  a  swing  in  their  mighty 
waltz ! 

The  star  Epsilon  (e)  in  Virgo  (see  Chart  VII,  at 
the  end  of  the  book)  is  Vindemiatrix,  the  "  Grape- 
gatherer,"  thus  named  from  some  imagined  associa- 
tion with  the  vintage.  Mukdim-al-Kitaf,  "The  Fore- 
runner of  the  Vintage,"  the  Arabs  called  it,  taking 
their  hint  from  the  Greeks  before  them.  Admiral 

31 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

Smyth,   in  his  Cycle  of  Celestial  Objects,  has  these 
curious  lines  on  this  star: 

"  Would  you  the  Star  of  Bacchus  find  on  noble  Virgo's  wing, 
A  lengthy  ray  from  Hydra's  heart  unto  Arcturus  bring; 
Two-thirds  along  that  fancied  line  direct  th'  inquiring  eye, 
And  there  the  jewel  will  be  seen,  south  of  Cor  Caroli." 

The  reader  may  be  interested  in  trying  the  star- 
loving  admiral's  plan  for  finding  Vindemiatrix. 

Gamma  (7)  is  Porrima,  a  prophetic  goddess  of  an- 
cient Latium,  consulted  especially  by  the  women. 
But  for  us  this  star  is  most  interesting  as  being  one 
of  the  first  binaries  discovered  in  the  heavens.  It  is 
a  charming  object  for  a  small  telescope.  The  two 
components  revolve  round  their  common  centre  of 
gravity  in  a  period  of  about  one  hundred  and  eighty 
years. 

As  the  reader  progresses  in  his  studies  he  will  find 
Virgo  full  of  interesting  objects,  including  the  cele- 
brated "Field  of  the  Nebulae,"  marked  out  by  the 
stars  Beta  (|3),  Gamma  (7),  Delta  (S),  Epsilon  (e), 
and  Eta  (ij) ;  but  to  see  the  nebulse,  which  are  thickly 
scattered  there,  he  must  have  a  powerful  telescope. 

Southwest  of  Virgo,  but  near  the  southeastern 
horizon,  the  quadrilateral  figure  of  the  constellation 
Corvus,  the  "Crow,"  catches  the  eye.  Its  brightest 
star  is  of  less  than  the  second  magnitude,  yet  by  their 
apparent  association  the  four  stars  immediately  at- 
tract attention.  One  sees  no  special  reason  why  the 
figures  marked  out  by  these  stars  should  be  likened 
to  the  form  of  a  bird ;  but  it  was  a  raven  to  both  the 

32 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  VERNAL  EQUINOX 

Greeks  and  the  Romans,  and  similarly  symbolical  to 
other  early  peoples.  The  Arabs,  however,  at  first 
called  it  the  "Tent,"  a  designation  which  at  least  had 
a  real  resemblance  for  its  basis.  But  these  stars  pos- 
sess a  charm  independent  of  any  fancied  likeness  to 
terrestrial  things.  In  looking  at  them  we  do  not 
think  of  the  billions  of  miles  which  actually  separate 
them  from  each  other,  but  only  of  their  seeming  com- 
panionship. If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  force  our- 
selves to  consider  the  immense  distances  between 
them  the  mind  is  overwhelmed  with  the  reflection 
that  here,  plainly  staked  out  before  us,  is  a  field  of 
space  of  absolutely  unthinkable  magnitude  with  its 
angles  as  clearly  marked  as  if  a  celestial  surveyor  had 
placed  corner-stones  there.  Note  that  the  star  Alpha 
(a) ,  once  the  leader  of  the  constellation  in  brightness 
as  well  as  in  alphabetical  rank,  is  now  so  faint  that 
you  have  to  look  for  it  where  it  shrinks,  in  half  con- 
cealment, below  one  of  its  now  brighter  neighbors. 
These  abasements  are  not  very  uncommon  among  the 
stars.  Their  glory,  too,  is  mutable;  they  also  have 
their  ups  and  downs.  The  Arabic  name  for  Alpha  (a) 
was  A I  Chiba,  or  Al  Hiba,  meaning  the  "Tent." 
Gamma  (7),  now  the  brightest  star  of  the  constella- 
tion, was  called  Gienah,  the  "Wing,"  and  Delta  (S), 
Algorab,  or  Al  Ghurab,  the  Arabic  name  for  "Raven," 
but  Beta  (/3) ,  which  is  perhaps  as  bright  as  Gamma  (7) , 
has  no  special  designation. 

From  Corvus  the  eye  wanders  naturally  to  its  neigh- 
bor on  the  west,  Crater,  the  "Cup."     Both  of  these 

33 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

constellations  rest  on  the  back  of  the  long  serpentine 
Hydra.  Crater  is  far  less  conspicuous  than  Corvus; 
but  its  resemblance  to  a  cup  is  rather  striking,  al- 
though the  imaginary  vessel  lies  tipped  up  on  its 
side  with  the  open  part  toward  the  east.  Among  the 
many  ascriptions  of  this  starry  cup  in  ancient  my- 
thology to  various  gods  and  goddesses,  none  is  more 
interesting  than  that  which  made  it  the  cup  of  Medea, 
thus  including  Crater  among  the  numerous  constella- 
tions which  were  associated  in  the  imagination  of 
the  Greeks  with  their  great  romance  of  the  Argonautic 
Expedition.  Its  brightest  stars  are  only  of  the  fourth 
and  fifth  magnitudes,  and  individually  not  worth  much 
attention. 

Hydra,  which  stretches  its  immense  coils  across 
about  seven  hours  of  right  ascension,  passing  under 
Cancer,  Leo,  Crater,  Corvus,  Virgo,  and  a  part  of 
Libra,  also  carries  the  mind  back  through  the  golden 
mists  of  the  morning  of  Greek  mythology  to  the  ad- 
ventures of  Jason  and  his  crew  of  Argonauts,  for  it 
was  once  identified  with  the  Aonian  Dragon.  It 
would  be  interesting  to  inquire  how  much  of  the 
perennial  fascination  of  this  ancient  romance  may  be 
due  to  its  traditional  association  with  the  stars.  Look 
first  at  the  head  of  Hydra,  now  well  west  of  the  merid- 
ian, below  the  glimmering  " Beehive"  in  Cancer.  It 
is  marked  by  five  stars  of  various  magnitudes  making 
an  irregular  pentagon.  Then  let  the  eye  follow  the 
line  down  southeastward  until  it  encounters  Cor 
Hydras,  or  Alphard,  the  latter  its  Arabic  name,  mean- 

34 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  VERNAL  EQUINOX 

ing  the  ' '  Solitary  One. "  It  is  of  the  second  magnitude 
and  of  a  reddish  color,  and  the  space  about  it  is  va- 
cant of  conspicuous  stars.  There  is  an  attraction  about 
these  solitary  bright  stars  that  is  almost  mystical, 
their  very  loneliness  lending  interest  to  the  view,  as 
when  one  watches  some  distant  snow-clad  peak  gleam- 
ing in  the  rays  of  sunset  after  all  the  lower  mountains 
have  sunk  into  the  blue  shadows  of  coming  night. 
Cor  Hydras  is  the  Alpha  (a)  of  its  constellation. 

Above  Hydra,  northeast  of  Cor  Hydrae,  at  the  cross- 
ing of  the  ecliptic  and  the  meridian,  is  the  great  star 
Regulus  in  Leo,  the  "Lion."  It  stands  at  the  lower 
end  of  the  handle  of  a  very  distinctly  marked  sickle- 
shaped  figure,  which  includes  the  breast,  head,  and 
mane  of  the  imaginary  lion.  Regulus  is  not  only  a 
beautiful  star,  but  it  possesses  much  practical  im- 
portance as  one  of  the  principal  "nautical  stars," 
having  been  employed  by  sailors  ever  since  the  be- 
ginning of  navigation  to  determine  their  place  at 
sea.  The  sun  almost  runs  over  this  star  about  the 
2oth  of  August,  and  every  month  the  moon  passes 
close  beside  it,  and  sometimes  occults  it.  Thus  it 
serves  as  a  golden  mile-stone  in  the  sky.  It  has 
strangely  affected  the  imagination  of  mankind  in  all 
ages.  From  the  remotest  times  it  has  everywhere 
been  known  as  the  "royal  star"  par  excellence.  In 
Greek  it  was  j3a<nXtWoe,  in  Latin  Rex,  from  which 
Copernicus  constructed  our  name,  Regulus.  There 
are  three  other  "royal  stars,"  Aldebaran,  Antares, 
and  Fomalhaut,  but  Regulus  has  always  been,  in  a 

35 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

certain  way,  their  chief,  For  five  thousand  years  it 
has  been  believed,  traditionally,  to  control  the  affairs 
of  heaven,  and  the  astrologers  have  seized  upon  this 
idea  by  making  it  the  natal  star  of  kings,  and  those 
destined  to  kingly  achievements  and  rule.  In  our 
age  of  science  we  may  safely  indulge  these  fancies; 
they  can  now  do  no  harm,  and  they  add  immensely 
to  the  interest  with  which  we  regard  the  star  that 
gave  birth  to  them.  When  the  "Royal  Star"  crosses 
high  on  the  meridian  in  the  vernal  evenings,  the 
imagination  is  thrown  back  over  almost  the  whole 
course  of  the  history  of  the  Aryan  race,  and  the  rays 
of  Regulus  bring  again  the  dreams  of  Babylon  and 
Nineveh,  of  Greece  and  Rome,  of  India,  and  of  the 
star- watching  deserts  of  Arabia.  Cyrus,  in  his  con- 
quering marches,  may  have  looked  to  that  star  for 
help  and  inspiration,  for  it  was  the  heavenly  guardian 
of  the  Persian  monarchs. 

The  spectroscope  tells  us  that  Regulus,  like  Spica, 
is  approaching  us,  but  less  rapidly,  drawing  nearer 
about  475,000  miles  per  day.  But  its  distance  is 
950,000,000,000,000  miles  (parallax  0^.02),  and  it 
outshines  the  sun  one  thousand  times. 

The  second  star  above  Regulus,  in  the  curve  of  the 
sickle's  blade,  is  Gamma  (y),  or  Algieba  (Arabic  the 
"Forehead"),  a  beautiful  double,  probably  binary, 
with  a  period  of  revolution  which  Doberck  has  esti- 
mated at  about  four  hundred  years.  The  larger  star 
of  the  pair  is  golden-orange  and  the  smaller  bronze- 
green,  a  marvellous  contrast,  and  an  ordinary  tele- 

36 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  VERNAL  EQUINOX 

scope  shows  well  the  spectacle,  the  distance  between 
the  components  being  3 ".7 8.  And  this  wonderful 
pair  is  rushing  toward  the  solar  system  at  the  rate 
of  two  million  miles  per  day.  Yet  so  great  is  its  dis- 
tance  that  we  have  no  record  that  in  a  thousand 
years  men  have  noticed  a  brightening  of  the  head- 
light of  this  terrible  locomotive  of  space!  But  prob- 
ably the  more  refined  methods  of  the  present  time, 
if  applied  for  a  similar  period,  would  reveal  an  omi- 
nous expansion  of  that  oncoming  light.  Gamma  is 
interesting  as  marking,  roughly,  the  spot  in  the  sky 
which  was  the  apparent  centre  of  radiation  for  the 
November  meteors,  which  were  last  seen  in  their 
splendor  in  1866-67,  their  return  in  1899-1900,  for 
which  the  world  had  long  been  waiting,  having  been 
prevented  by  the  disturbing  attraction  of  Jupiter 
and  Saturn,  which  shifted  their  orbit. 

The  "Sickle"  in  its  entirety  is  an  attractive  aster- 
ism,  and  hanging  so  conspicuously  in  the  sky  on  a 
spring  evening  it  may  be  imaginatively  regarded  as 
a  harbinger  of  the  opening  of  the  season  when  the 
thoughts  of  men  are  turning  to  preparations  for  fut- 
ure harvests.  In  the  height  of  the  harvest  season 
the  " Sickle"  sets  near  sundown,  then  no  longer  stand- 
ing upright,  but  lying  along  upon  the  horizon — a  symbol 
of  the  wearied  husbandman's  approaching  hours  of  rest : 

"  Nor  shall  a  starry  night  his  hopes  betray." 

Away  off  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  constellation,  in 
the  lion's  tail,  shines  its  second  star  in  rank,  Denebola 

37 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

(Arabic  Al  Dhanab,  the  "Tail")-  It  too  is  speeding 
hitherward,  but  only  half  as  fast  as  Gamma.  Like 
Aldebaran,  the  name  Denebola  has  an  indefinite 
charm,  from  its  full  round  vowel  sounds,  and  a  cer- 
tain nobility  in  the  look  of  it  as  it  lies  on  the  printed 
page.  As  with  many  sonorous  Indian  names  in 
American  geography,  these  old  star  names  lose  some- 
thing of  their  effect  when  they  are  translated.  It  is 
better  to  take  them  as  they  stand,  transcending  ter- 
restrial analogy  and  definition,  like  the  sublime  ob- 
jects that  they  designate. 

Northeast  of  Denebola  lies  the  small  constellation 
of  Coma  Berenices,  "Berenice's  Hair,"  remarkable 
for  the  confused  glitter  of  the  small  scattered  stars 
of  which  it  consists.  It  is  a  constellation  with  a 
romantic  history  which  I  shall  not  retell  here.  It 
forms  an  attraction  for  an  opera-glass. 

We  now  return  to  the  region  of  sky  above  the  head 
of  Hydra,  west  of  the  meridian.  There  the  attention 
is  arrested  by  a  glimmering  spot,  a  kind  of  starry 
cobweb,  which  represents  the  "Beehive"  cluster  in 
Cancer.  Its  classical  name  is  Prasepe,  the  "Manger." 
In  Astronomy  with  the  Naked  Eye  will  be  found  a  copy 
of  Galileo's  drawing  of  the  stars  of  Prsesepe  as  they 
appeared  to  him  with  his  newly  invented  telescope. 
It  is  delightful  to  look  at  them  on  a  clear  night  with 
a  large  opera-glass  or  a  small  telescope.  They  are  an 
example  of  that  clustering  tendency  so  often  seen 
among  the  stars,  and  which  reaches  its  most  wonder- 
ful manifestations  in  such  assemblages  as  the  famous 

38 


EVENING   SKY   AT   THE    VERNAL   EQUINOX 

globular  clusters  in  Hercules  and  Centaurus,  where 
countless  thousands  of  small  stars  appear  to  be  so 
crowded  together  that  in  the  centre  they  run  up  into 
a  perfect  blaze.  But  in  Praesepe  there  is  no  such  ap- 
parent crowding,  though  the  stars  are  so  numerous 
that  they  resemble  a  swarm  of  bees.  The  probability 
is  that  none  of  the  stars  in  this  company  is  as  large 
as  our  sun  —  although  we  cannot  be  perfectly  sure 
because  we  do  not  know  their  distance  —  but  they 
are,  nevertheless,  true  stellar  bodies,  solar  children, 
which  seem  playing  together,  overwatched  by  larger 
stars,  waiting  not  far  away.  Plato,  or  his  disciples, 
taking  the  suggestion  from  older  dreamers,  regarded 
Praesepe  as  a  gateway  of  souls  through  which  de- 
scended the  spirits  that  were  to  animate  the  bodies 
of  men  during  their  earthly  life.  There  are  moods  in 
which  one  can  hardly  consider  our  coldly  scientific 
way  of  treating  such  celestial  wonders  as  being  essen- 
tially superior  to  the  more  spiritual  ideas  and  sug- 
gestions of  the  visionaries  of  antiquity,  before  man 
became  possessed  with  the  notion  that  all  science  is 
summed  up  in  measurement.  Unquestionably  we 
have  more  "  facts,"  but  have  we  more  inspiration? 
Are  we  as  near  to  the  stars  as  were  those  who  knew 
less  about  them?  Have  we  yet  got  the  key  to  un- 
lock the  universe?  Do  many  of  us  comprehend  the 
dictum  of  one  of  our  own  modern  sages  —  '  '  Hitch  your 
wagon  to  a  star"? 

Cancer  has  no  conspicuous  stars,  and  it  covers  but 
a  small  space  on  the  sky,  yet  as  a  constellation  it  is 
4  39 


UNIVERSITY  OF 
««PARTMENT  OF  CIVIL  ENGINEERS 
BERKELEY.  CALIFORNIA 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

as  old  as  any,  and  it  has  given  us  our  "Tropic  of 
Cancer,"  because  in  ancient  times,  before  the  Pre- 
cession of  the  Equinoxes  had  drifted  the  zodiacal 
signs  and  constellations  apart,  the  place  of  the  Sum- 
mer Solstice,  where  the  sun  is  at  its  northern  extreme 
of  declination,  was  situated  in  Cancer,  though  now 
we  find  it  in  Gemini,  close  to  the  borders  of  Taurus. 
Westward  from  Cancer  we  see  the  great  group  of 
mighty  stars  and  constellations  of  which  Orion  is  the 
chief  and  centre,  but  Sirius  the  brightest  jewel.  They 
are  now  declining  rapidly  toward  the  horizon,  and 
will  be  better  studied  at  another  season.  They  in- 
clude, besides  Orion,  Gemini,  Auriga,  Taurus,  Canis 
Major,  and  Canis  Minor,  and  will  be  found  more 
favorably  situated  in  the  chart  devoted  to  the  sky  at 
the  Winter  Solstice.  For  the  present,  then,  we  turn 
our  eyes  to  the  northern  central  part  of  the  vernal 
heavens.  There,  almost  overhead,  shines  the  "Great 
Bear,"  Ursa  Major,  always  recognizable  by  the  re- 
markable figure  of  the  "Great  Dipper,"  or,  as  they 
prefer  to  call  it  in  Old  England — where  brimming 
dippers  of  sparkling  water  lifted  dripping  from  the 
"old  oaken  bucket"  are  not  so  familiar  as  in  New 
England— the  "Wain,"  or  the  "Plough."  We  have 
already  remarked  that  at  this  season  the  Bear  has 
his  feet  uppermost  in  the  middle  of  the  sky  and  his 
back  downward  toward  the  pole.  The  Dipper,  too, 
is  now  upside  down,  drained  of  its  last  imaginary  drop, 
though  its  stars  may  be  the  more  brilliant  for  that. 
The  figure  of  the  bowl  is  situated  on  the  flank  of  the 

40 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  VERNAL  EQUINOX 

Bear,  and  its  handle  represents  his  impossible  tail. 
Six  of  its  stars  are  of  the  second  magnitude,  and  one, 
at  the  junction  of  the  bowl  and  the  handle,  of  the 
third.  Their  Greek  letters,  beginning  at  the  north- 
western corner  of  the  bowl,  are,  Alpha  (a),  Beta  (/3), 
Gamma  (7),  Delta  (S),  Epsilon  (c),  Zeta  (?),  and  Eta 
(r/),  and  their  names,  in  the  same  order,  Dubhe,  Merak, 
Ph&d,  Megrez,  Alioth,  Mizar,  and  Benetnasch. 

I  once  knew  a  country  school-teacher  who  thought 
that  he  had  acquired  a  pretty  good  knowledge  of 
astronomy  when  he  had  learned  these  names  by  heart. 
He  certainly  knew  more  of  uranography  than  most 
people.  The  names  seem  to  be  all  of  Arabic  origin, 
and  at  the  risk  of  destroying  their  charm  I  will  give, 
from  Allen's  Star  Names,  their  probable  significa- 
tions. Dubhe  means  simply  "Bear";  Merak  (some- 
times Mirak),  "Loin";  Ph&d  (sometimes  Phecda  or 
Phad) ,  ' ' Thigh ' ' ;  Megrez,  ' '  Root  of  the  Tail ' ' ;  Alioth, 
meaning  uncertain,  probably  something  to  do  with 
the  tail;  Mizar  (originally  Mirak),  "Girdle";  and 
Benetnasch  (sometimes  Alcaid) ,  ' '  Chief  of  the  Mourn- 
ers," from  an  Arabic  phrase  having  that  signification. 

The  star  Megrez,  now  so  much  fainter  than  the 
others,  was  once  as  bright  as  any  of  them.  It  has 
faded  within  three  hundred  years. 

Close  by  Mizar  a  fairly  good  eye  has  no  difficulty 
in  seeing  a  small  star  which  is  named  Alcor  (signifi- 
cation uncertain) .  The  Arabs  are  said  to  have  called 
these  two  stars  the  "Horse  and  his  Rider,"  and  to 
have  regarded  it  as  a  test  of  good  vision  to  be  able 

41 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

to  see  them  both.  It  is  certainly  not  a  severe  test 
at  present.  Mizar  itself  is  telescopically  double,  pre- 
senting a  beautiful  sight  in  a  small  telescope,  the 
distance  asunder  being  about  14".  The  smaller  star 
is  like  an  emerald  in  hue,  and  the  color  is  usually 
remarked  at  once  by  the  beginner  in  telescopic  ob- 
servation. The  larger  star  is  one  of  those  strange 
objects  called  "spectroscopic  binaries"  —  two  suns 
locked  in  the  embrace  of  gravitation  and  spinning 
round  a  centre  so  near  to  each  other  that  to  any- 
thing less  penetrating  than  the  magic  eye  of  the 
spectroscope  they  appear  as  a  single  body. 

Merak  and  Dubhe  are  the  celebrated  "Pointers,"  so 
called  because  a  line  drawn  from  the  former  to  the 
latter,  and  continued  toward  the  pole,  passes  close 
to  Polaris,  the  Pole-star,  of  which  we  shall  presently 
speak.  The  distance  between  these  stars  is  about 
five  degrees,  so  that  they  serve  as  a  rough  measuring- 
stick  for  estimating  distances  in  the  sky.  Immedi- 
ately west  of  the  meridian  will  be  seen  a  curving  row 
of  stars  which  indicate  the  head  of  the  Bear.  Three 
of  his  feet,  or  claws,  are  represented  by  as  many  pairs 
of  stars  between  the  Great  Dipper  and  the  Sickle  of 
Leo,  one  of  the  pairs  being  east  of  the  meridian,  one 
west  of  it,  and  one  nearly  upon  it.  Below  the  outer 
end  of  the  handle  of  the  Dipper,  in  the  direction  of 
Denebola,  a  fairly  bright  star,  Cor  Caroli,  which  Eng- 
lish loyalty  named  for  the  heart  of  the  unfortunate 
King  Charles  I.,  shines  on  the  collar  of  one  of  the 
"Hunting  Dogs,"  Canes  Venatici,  which  Bootes  is 

42 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  VERNAL  EQUINOX 

represented  as  holding  in  a  leash  as  he  chases  Ursa 
Major  round  the  pole.  This,  too,  is  a  beautiful  double, 
the  contrasted  colors  of  whose  widely  separated  stars 
are  finely  shown  by  a  small  telescope. 

Now  let  the  eye  run  along  the  curve  of  the  Dipper's 
handle,  beginning  at  the  bowl,  and  then,  springing 
on,  continue  the  same  curve  eastward;  it  will  en- 
counter, at  a  distance  about  equal  to  the  whole 
length  of  the  Dipper,  a  very  great  and  brilliant  star — 
Arcturus,  brighter  than  Spica  and  Regulus,  and  usual- 
ly, when  not  very  far  risen  from  the  horizon,  of  a 
distinctly  reddish  hue.  It  is  the  chief  star  of  Bootes, 
the  "Driver,"  the  "Vociferator,"  the  "Herdsman," 
or  the  ''Bear- watcher,"  as  it  has  been  variously  ren- 
dered. We  shall  have  more  to  say  about  Bootes  in 
another  chapter,  but  Arcturus  is  a  star  so  splendid  and 
famous  that  it  cannot  be  passed  in  silence  the  first 
time  the  beginner  catches  sight  of  it.  There  is  a 
standing  dispute  concerning  the  relative  rank  in 
brightness  of  Arcturus  among  the  leading  stars  of  the 
northern  hemisphere.  Its  principal  rivals  are  Vega 
in  the  Lyre,  and  CapeFa  in  Auriga.  But  all  three 
differ  in  color,  and  that  makes  it  more  difficult  to 
decide  upon  their  relative  brilliance,  since  different 
eyes  vary  in  their  sensitiveness  to  color.  The  Har- 
vard Photometric  Durchmusterung  gives  Vega  the 
first  and  Arcturus  the  third  rank  among  these  three; 
but  many  eyes  recognize  rather  a  pre-eminence  of 
Arcturus.  My  own  impression  has  usually  been  that 
Arcturus  looms  larger  than  either  Vega  or  Capella, 

43 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

but  that  Vega  is  the  most  penetratingly  brilliant.  It 
is  very  curious  to  notice  the  effect  of  the  colors  of 
these  stars.  The  sharp  blue  ray  in  the  light  of  Vega 
gives  it  a  diamond-like  quality  which  is  lacking  in 
Capella,  whose  light  is  white  with  just  a  suspicion 
of  amber.  Arcturus  is  a  very  pale  topaz  when  high 
in  the  sky,  and  a  ruddy  yellow,  sometimes  flaming 
red,  when  near  the  horizon.  It  is  a  thrilling  recol- 
lection of  the  writer's  early  boyhood  that  he  felt  an 
undefined  fear  of  Arcturus  when  seen  rising  omi- 
nously red  and  flashing  through  the  leafless  boughs  of 
an  apple  orchard  in  the  late  evenings  of  February. 
All  the  ancients  feared  Arcturus  for  its  supposed  in- 
fluence in  producing  storms  and  bad  harvests. 

Arcturus  is  a  sun  of  enormous  magnitude,  esti- 
mated all  the  way  from  one  to  six  thousand  times  as 
great  in  luminosity  as  our  sun.  It  is  also  travelling 
with  great  rapidity,  its  speed,  according  to  some  esti- 
mates, amounting  to  two  or  three  hundred  miles  per 
second;  but  most  of  this  is  cross-motion  with  refer- 
ence to  us,  its  general  direction  being  toward  the 
south-southwest.  If  it  is  travelling  three  hundred 
miles  per  second,  it  would  traverse  the  space  between 
the  sun  and  the  nearest  star,  Alpha  Centauri,  in  about 
three  thousand  years.  We  shall  touch  on  Arcturus 
again  when  dealing  with  Bootes  in  the  next  chapter. 

Disregarding  for  the  present  the  exquisite  circlet  of 
Corona  Borealis,  the  "Northern  Crown,"  and  the 
quadrilateral  figure  in  Hercules,  seen  northeast  of 
Arcturus,  we  turn  to  the  great  dragon,  Draco,  whose 

44 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  VERNAL  EQUINOX 

diamond-shaped  head  may  be  seen  far  over  in  the 
northeast  above  sparkling  Vega,  which  is  just  on  the 
horizon.  As  a  reference  to  the  charts  of  the  cir- 
cumpolar  stars  at  the  end  of  the  book  will  show,  Draco 
is  a  remarkably  crooked  constellation,  its  line  of  stars 
winding  round  between  the  " Little  Dipper"  in  Ursa 
Minor,  which  has  Polaris  at  the  end  of  its  handle,  and 
the  ' 'Great  Dipper  "  of  Ursa  Major.  Its  most  interest- 
ing, though  not  now  its  brightest,  star  is  Alpha,  or 
Thuban,  Arabic  for  " dragon."  It  lies  between  the 
end  of  the  handle  of  the  Great  Dipper  and  the  bowl 
of  the  small  one.  About  forty-six  hundred  years  ago 
Alpha  Draconis  was  the  Pole-star,  and  is  believed  to 
nave  shone  down  the  long  tube-like  passage  in  the 
great  pyramid  of  Cheops  into  the  watching  eyes  of 
the  priestly  astronomers,  assembled  to  view  it  in  the 
mysterious  chamber  hollowed  out  of  the  solid  rock 
deep  under  the  foundations  of  the  mighty  pile.  They 
thus  had  a  telescope  more  than  three  hundred  feet 
long  as  immovable  as  the  solid  earth,  but,  alas  for 
their  calculations,  the  star  itself  shifted  its  position, 
and  their  gigantic  observing  tube  became  useless 
until  modern  science  inferred  from  its  position  the 
date  of  their  building.  How  imposing  to  the  imag- 
ination this  association  between  a  particular  star  and 
the  mightiest  structure  made  by  human  hands  on 
the  earth !  Two  centuries  ago  Thuban  was  more  than 
twice  as  bright  as  it  is  now,  and  when  the  Egyptian 
priests  sedulously  observed  it  from  their  gloomy 
cavern,  more  than  a  thousand  years  before  the  magic- 

45 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

working  days  of  Moses,  it  may  have  been  brighter 
still. 

Gamma  (y),  or  Eltanin  (the  "Dragon"),  in  the  tri- 
angular head,  is  now  the  brightest  star  in  the  con- 
stellation, and  it,  too,  has  a  history.  Lockyer  and 
others  have  identified  it  as  the  orientation  star  of 
Rameses'  great  temple  at  Karnak,  and  of  the  temples 
of  Hathor  and  Mut  at  Dendera  and  Thebes.  There  is 
something  magnificent  in  this  thought  of  the  ancient 
temple-builders — to  square  their  work  by  the  stars, 
and  to  construct  long  rows  of  sphinxes  and  majestic 
columns  to  conduct  a  ray  from  the  sky  to  the  eye  of 
the  god  in  his  dark  and  hidden  chamber,  where  no 
impious  foot  dared  follow. 

When  you  are  tired  of  tracing  the  windings  of  the 
Dragon,  turn  to  Ursa  Minor  and  Polaris.  The  "Little 
Bear,"  it  has  been  remarked,  has  an  even  more  pre- 
posterous tail  than  his  greater  brother.  Polaris  is  at 
the  end  of  the  tail,  or  the  end  of  the  handle  of  the 
Little  Dipper,  and  the  bowl  of  the  latter  is  on  the 
bear's  flank. 

If  one  knows  nothing  else  of  uranography ,  one  should 
at  least  know  Polaris,  the  "North  Star."  To  recog- 
nize that  star  is  to  be  able  to  orient  yourself  wherever 
you  may  be  in  the  northern  hemisphere.  A  whole 
volume  could  be  written  on  its  connection  with  hu- 
man affairs.  For  at  least  two  thousand  years  it  has 
been  the  cynosure  of  sailors,  and  of  wanderers  by 
land  as  well.  You  cannot  be  lost  if  you  have  Polaris 
to  guide  you.  The  magnetic  compass  varies  and  mis- 

46 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  VERNAL  EQUINOX 

leads,  the  sun  and  the  moon  change  their  places,  all 
the  other  stars  circle  through  the  heavens,  but  Polaris 
is  always  there,  shining  over  the  pole  of  the  earth,  the 
image  of  steadfastness.  Only  the  slow  Precession  of 
the  Equinoxes  affects  it.  At  the  present  time  it  is 
within  one  degree  and  a  quarter  of  the  true  pole  of 
the  heavens,  and  it  is  drawing  nearer  that  point,  so 
that  in  two  hundred  years  it  will  be  less  than  half  a 
degree  from  it — less  than  the  apparent  diameter  of 
the  moon.  The  little  circle  that  it  daily  describes 
in  the  sky  may  be  disregarded,  for  it  is  hardly  notice- 
able except  with  instruments;  but  it  is  easy  to  fix 
the  star's  position  with  considerable  accuracy  by 
simple  observation.  Note  that  the  Great  Dipper  and 
the  "W '-shaped  figure  in  Cassiopeia  are  on  opposite 
sides  of  the  pole.  When  one  is  above,  the  other  is 
below;  when  one  is  on  the  east,  the  other  is  on  the 
west.  Draw  an  imaginary  line  from  the  star  Mizar 
in  the  Great  Dipper  to  the  star  Delta  (S)  in  Cassiopeia 
and  it  will  pass  almost  directly  through  the  pole. 
Polaris  is  on  that  line,  a  degree  and  a  quarter  from 
the  pole  in  the  direction  of  Delta  Cassiopeiae.  If  the 
observation  is  made  when  Delta  is  above  the  pole 
and  Mizar  below  it,  Polaris  will  be  on  the  meridian, 
or  north  and  south  line,  a  degree  and  a  quarter  above 
the  pole;  when  Delta  is  west  of  the  pole  and  Mizar 
east  of  it,  Polaris  will  be  a  degree  and  a  quarter  west 
of  the  meridian;  when  Delta  is  below  the  pole  and 
Mizar  above  it,  Polaris  will  be  on  the  meridian  a 
degree  and  a  quarter  below  the  pole;  and,  finally, 

47 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

when  Delta  is  east  of  the  pole  and  Mizar  west  of  it, 
Polaris  will  be  a  degree  and  a  quarter  east  of  the 
meridian.  The  intermediate  positions  you  can  easily 
deduce  for  yourself. 

But  Polaris  will  not  continue  to  be  the  unerring 
guide  to  the  north  that  it  now  is.  The  Precession 
of  the  Equinoxes  is  carrying  the  pole  progressively 
westward  in  right  ascension,  so  that  Polaris  will 
eventually  be  left  far  behind.  But  the  motion  of  the 
pole  is  in  a  circle  about  twenty-three  and  a  half 
degrees  in  radius,  and  it  requires  about  25,800  years 
to  complete  a  revolution  round  this  circle.  Conse- 
quently, at  the  end  of  that  period,  Polaris  will  have 
come  back  to  reign  again  as  the  North  Star  for  many 
centuries.  In  the  interim  other  stars  will  have  oc- 
cupied  its  place.  About  11,500  years  from  now  the 
brilliant  Vega,  or  Alpha  Lyras,  will  be  the  North 
Star,  and  in  about  21,000  years  Alpha  Draconis 
(Thuban)  will  once  more  shine  down  the  great  north- 
ward-pointing passage  in  the  pyramid  of  Cheops,  if 
that  pyramid  shall  still  exist. 

Polaris,  unlike  some  of  the  others  stars  that  we  have 

been  looking  at,  is  running  away  into  space  instead 

of  approaching  us,  at  a  speed  which  has  been  esti- 

\mated  at  about  1,380,000  miles  per  day.     Its  present 

^distance  is  not  less  than  200,000,000,000,000  miles. 

It  has  an  invisible  companion  with  which  it  circles 

in  an  orbit  of  a  few  million  miles  diameter  in  a  period 

of  about  four  days. 

Polaris  is  also  a  celebrated  visual  double.     With  a 

48 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  VERNAL  EQUINOX 

telescope  of  two  or  three  inches  aperture  you  can  see 
close  by  its  flaming  rays  a  minute  blue  star,  a  deli- 
cately beautiful  sight.  In  the  older  days  of  tele- 
scopes, before  they  had  attained  the  perfection  which 
improvements  in  glass-making  and  lens-shaping  have 
rendered  possible,  this  little  companion  star  of  Polaris 
was  a  universal  test  of  excellence.  Its  prestige  was 
historical.  The  amateur  owner  of  a  telescope  who 
could  see  that  star  clearly  felt  a  joy  that  he  could 
hardly  express.  The  old  makers  of  object-glasses, 
by  rule  of  thumb,  always  tried  them  on  the  compan- 
ion of  the  Polestar  as  a  standard  test  for  small  aper- 
tures. The  small  star  is  of  the  ninth  magnitude,  and 
situated  about  i8".6  from  its  primary. 

The  stars  Beta  (j3),  or  Kochab  (the  "Star"),  and 
Gamma  (7) ,  in  Ursa  Minor,  are  called  the  Wardens,  or 
Guards,  of  the  Pole.  In  low  northern  latitudes,  where 
these  stars  sweep  the  horizon  at  their  lower  culmina- 
tion, Shakespeare's  description  in  Othello  would  be 
literally  true  during  a  great  storm  at  sea: 

"  The  wind-shak'd  surge,  with  high  and  monstrous  mane, 
Seems  to  cast  water  on  the  burning  Bear 
And  quench  the  guards  of  th'  ever-fixed  pole." 

The  constellations  Cepheus,  Cassiopeia,  and  Perseus, 
now  low  in  the  northwest  and  north,  we  leave  for 
description  to  another  chapter. 


II 

THE    EVENING   SKY  AT   THE    SUMMER   SOLSTICE 

AT  10  o'clock  P.M.  on  the  2ist  of  June,  the  longest 
day  of  the  northern  hemisphere,  the  aspect  of 
the  sky  is  that  shown  in  Chart  II,  accompanying  this 
chapter.  The  same  chart  will  answer  for  n  P.M.  on 
the  5th  or  6th  of  June;  9  P.M.  on  the  ;th  of  July,  and 
8  P.M.  on  the  226.  or  23d  of  July.  In  fact,  for  any  of 
the  hours  mentioned  the  date  may  be  shifted  several 
days  forward  or  backward  without  seriously  affecting 
the  comparison  of  the  chart  with  the  sky,  and  the 
same  may  be  said  of  each  of  the  other  circular  charts. 
The  stars  simply  rise  about  four  minutes  earlier  each 
evening,  and  four  minutes  of  time  correspond  to  one 
degree  of  space  measured  on  the  face  of  the  sky.  So 
the  whole  sky  shifts  about  one  degree  westward  every 
twenty-four  hours. 

For  the  observation  of  the  heavens  at  the  epoch 
of  the  Summer  Solstice,  observers  who  are  situated 
at  least  as  far  south  as  40°  north  latitude  have  an  ad- 
vantage over  those  whose  place  on  the  earth  is  much 
farther  north,  because  in  the  more  northern  regions 
sunset  occurs  later,  and  in  England  and  Northern 
Europe  the  day,  at  this  time,  may  exceed  sixteen 

50 


CHART    II THE    SUMMER    EVENING' "SKY- 


EVENING    SKY    AT   THE    SUMMER    SOLSTICE 

hours  in  length,  while  twilight  is  perceptible  through- 
out the  night.  This  interferes  with  the  brilliancy  of 
the  stars. 

At  no  other  season  do  the  heavenly  bodies  seem  so 
intimately  associated  with  the  earth  as  in  summer. 
All  nature  is  now  attuned,  and  the  stars  glow  softly 
in  the  tepid  atmosphere,  stirred  by  faint  breezes, 
like  veritable  flowers  of  the  sky.  The  firmament  be- 
comes a  vast  garden  lit  with  beautiful  lamps,  which 
seem  to  have  been  placed  there  to  dimly  illuminate 
nocturnal  wanderers  in  the  transparent  gloom  be- 
neath. Their  beauty  is  as  refreshing  as  the  cooling 
breath  of  night  itself.  A  mystic  influence  steals  from 
them  over  the  earth. 

"If  a  man  would  be  alone,"  says  Emerson,  "let 
him  look  at  the  stars." 

Yet  he  cannot  be'  alone  with  them;  they  are  too 
friendly ;  they  speak  too  plainly  a  universal  language, 
which,  though  he  cannot  translate  it,  he  feels  in  every 
fibre.  There  is  nothing  more  absolutely  common  to 
all  men  than  the  influence  of  the  stars.  No  one  ever 
gazed  up  at  them  without  feeling  a  change  come  over 
his  spirit.  Truly,  "they  separate  between  him  and 
what  he  touches."  They  free  him  from  the  bondage 
of  time  and  space.  There  is  no  trouble  that  they 
cannot  assuage.  And  there  is  no  time  like  the  sum- 
mer for  becoming  intimate  with  them.  One  who  has 
been  touched  by  the  magic  of  their  love  could  lie  all 
the  night  long  on  a  bed  of  pine-needles  and  fill  his 
soul  with  their  beauty.  The  march  of  red  Antares 

S3 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

and  his  glittering  retinue  across  the  meridian  while 
the  earth  sleeps  in  solstitial  calm — who  can  describe 
that  pageant? 

Antares  is  the  summer  star,  and  with  it  and  the 
Scorpion  we  will  begin.  Not  so  bright  as  Arcturus  or 
Vega,  which  are  now  high  aloft,  it  has  a  charm 
peculiar  to  itself,  arising  partly  from  its  fervid  color, 
partly  from  its  surroundings,  and  partly  from  its 
position,  not  too  high  above  the  southern  horizon, 
which  renders  observation  of  the  star  comparatively 
easy.  The  color  is  so  distinctive  that  one  might 
think  that  he  could  recognize  Antares  chromatically 
if  it  were  suddenly  transported  to  some  other  region 
of  the  sky  and  placed  amid  a  strange  environment. 
Sometimes  a  flash  of  its  fiery  rays,  striking  sidewise 
into  the  eye  as  one  is  looking  elsewhere,  startles  the 
observer  like  a  red  meteor.  It  is  well  named  Antares 
— " Anti-Mars."  With  the  telescope  the  wonder  of 
color  is  increased,  for  close  by  the  great  star  the  glass 
reveals  a  smaller  one  of  a  vivid  green,  an  all  but  in- 
credible combination  of  complementarily  tinted  suns. 
And  these  suns  are  undoubtedly  actually  linked  to- 
gether into  a  system,  so  that,  if  there  are  planets  re- 
volving around  both  or  either,  the  inhabitants  of  those 
planets  may  behold  the  spectacle  of  two  suns,  one 
crimson  and  the  other  emerald!  The  large  star  is  of 
the  first  magnitude,  and  the  small  one  of  the  seventh  ; 
angular  distance  3 ".7. 

The  companion  of  Antares  is  historically  associated 
with  the  most  interesting  of  American  astronomers, 

54 


EVENING    SKY    AT    THE    SUMMER    SOLSTICE 

a  man  whose  life  was  a  romance,  Gen.  O.  M.  Mitchel. 
When  his  long-cherished  design  of  setting  up  a  great 
telescope  in  America  was  at  last  fulfilled,  at  Cincin- 
nati, in  1845,  one  °f  his  first  achievements  was  the 
discovery,  to  the  surprise  of  the  astronomers  of  Europe, 
of  the  green  star  hiding  in  the  rays  of  Antares.  At 
times  it  has  been  seen  emerging  from  behind  the  moon, 
after  an  occultation,  ahead  of  its  red  comrade. 

With  a  parallax  of  o".o2,  Newcomb  estimated  the 
luminosity  of  Antares  at  nine  hundred  times  that  of  y 
our  sun,  and  yet  the  spectroscope  indicates  that  it  is 
a  dying  sun,  fast  approaching  extinction.  In  its 
younger  days  it  may  have  been  an  orb  of  prodigious 
splendor. 

The  constellation  Scorpio,  of  which  Antares  is  the 
leader,  is  one  of  the  best  marked  in  the  sky.  The 
two  small  stars  Sigma  (d)  and  Tau  (r),  standing  like 
attendants  on  either  side  of  Antares,  lend  a  singular 
aspect  to  the  central  part  of  the  constellation.  An- 
tares is  usually  represented  as  the  heart  of  the  imagi- 
nary scorpion.  Below  Tau  a  curving  row  of  stars 
dips  to  the  southern  horizon,  and  then  rises,  farther 
eastward,  terminating  with  a  conspicuous  pair  in  the 
uplifted  sting.  West  of  Antares  a  nearly  vertical 
row  represents  the  head.  Of  the  stars  in  this  row, 
Beta  (|3)  is  interesting  as  a  fine  and  easily  seen  double, 
the  distance  being  about  13".  A  higher  magnifying 
power  shows  that  the  larger  star  has  another  faint 
companion,  distant  only  0^.7.  Nu  (y)  is  also  tele- 
scopically  interesting,  for  it  consists  of  two  pairs  of 

55 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

stars.  Observe  in  Chart  VII  the  strange  way  in  which 
the  outlines  of  the  constellation  have  been  swung  into 
loops  in  order  to  include  certain  stars  in  Scorpio, 
recalling  the  crooked  boundary  between  Switzerland 
and  Italy,  by  which  each  reserves  particular  peaks 
of  the  Alps  for  itself. 

East  of  Scorpio,  where  the  Milky  Way,  falling  in 
flakes  and  sheets  of  silvery  splendor  upon  the  south- 
eastern horizon,  spreads  abroad  like  an  overflowing 
river,  lies  Sagittarius,  the  " Archer,"  often  represented 
in  the  old  pictorial  charts  as  a  centaur.  The  stars 
Lambda  (X),  Delta  (S),  and  Epsilon  (e)  form  the  bent 
bow.  But  modern  eyes  recognize  more  easily  a  dip- 
per, formed  by  the  stars  Zeta  (£) ,  Tau  (r) ,  Sigma  (<r) , 
Phi  (0),  Lambda  (X),  and  Mu  (/*).  But  the  star- 
clusters  in  Sagittarius  are  more  interesting  than  the 
separate  stars.  A  little  southwest  of  Mu  is  the  famous 
cluster  8  M.,  of  which  Barnard  has  made  a  photograph 
that  is  amazing  beyond  all  description.  Other  clus- 
ters are  all  about  in  this  part  of  the  sky.  A  good 
opera-glass  or  field-glass  is  almost  indispensable  for 
one  who  would  enjoy  the  glory  of  this  wondrous 
region.  Its  riches  are  almost  oppressive  in  their 
lavish  abundance.  Here  one  can  have  handfuls  of 
stars  for  the  picking  up,  like  sands  of  gold  from  the 
bed  of  Pactolus.  As  the  glittering  incrustations  that 
cover  the  roofs  and  walls  of  the  Mammoth  Cave  are 
often  compared  to  the  starry  heavens,  so,  reversing  the 
image,  Sagittarius  is  like  a  stupendous  cavern  of  space 
all  ablaze  and  aglitter  with  millions  of  sparkling  gems. 

56 


EVENING    SKY    AT   THE    SUMMER    SOLSTICE 

Above  Scorpio  and  Sagittarius  are  the  intertwined 
constellations  of  Ophiuchus  and  Serpens.  He  who 
may  wish  to  disentangle  them  is  referred  to  Astronomy 
with  the  Naked  Eye.  But  the  outlines  can  be  traced 
in  Chart  VII.  The  head  of  Serpens,  like  those  of 
Hydra  and  Draco,  is  plainly  marked  by  a  striking 
group  of  stars,  in  this  case  resembling  the  figure  called 
a  " quincunx."  From  this  point  just  under  the 
''Northern  Crown,"  the  serpent's  stars  wind  down- 
ward in  beautiful  pairs  and  groups,  crossing  the  me- 
ridian above  Scorpio,  and  rising  again  in  the  eastern 
part  of  the  sky,  above  the  little  constellation  of 
Sobieski's  Shield,  until  they  meet  the  borders  of 
Aquila.  Ophiuchus,  with  his  head  high  up  toward 
Hercules,  where  it  is  marked  by  the  brightest  star  in 
that  part  of  the  sky,  Alpha  Ophiuchi,  or  Ras  Alhague, 
the  "Head  of  the  Serpent  Charmer,"  stands  with  legs 
braced  wide  apart,  grasping  the  serpent  at  the  points 
marked  by  the  stars  Delta  (S)  and  Epsilon  (c),  and 
Tau  (r)  and  Nu  (v).  It  is  Esculapius  with  his  Ser- 
pent, said  the  Greeks;  it  is  St.  Paul  and  the  Viper 
of  Melita,  or  Moses  and  the  Brazen  Serpent,  we  don't 
know  which,  said  the  churchmen.  I  am  not  aware 
that  in  England  they  have  ever  been  tempted  to  call 
it  St.  George  and  the  Dragon.  Politics  and  national 
pride  have  not  meddled  much  with  the  stars,  although 
there  was  once  an  attempt  to  fix  the  name  of  Na- 
poleon upon  Orion.  Ras  Alhague  is  described  by 
R.  H.  Allen  as  sapphire  in  hue,  while  Alpha  Serpentis 
is  yellowish.  The  star  Lambda  (A)  in  Ophiuchus, 
5  57 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

also  called  Marfik,  the  "  Elbow,"  is  a  beautiful  binary, 
period  235  years,  distance  apart  i",2.  The  smaller 
star  is  smalt  blue,  a  splendid  telescopic  object. 

But,  as  in  the  case  of  Sagittarius,  the  greater  won- 
ders here  are  in  the  form  of  star-clusters,  and  par- 
ticularly nebulae.  Just  above  Ant  ares,  in  one  of  the 
feet  of  Ophiuchus,  is  a  small  star,  Rho  (to  find  which 
the  reader  must  consult  a  large  star  atlas,  like  Klein's), 
around  which  Barnard  has  discovered,  by  photog- 
raphy, a  truly  marvellous  nebula,  a  nebula  which 
appears  to  obscure  the  stars  like  a  cloud  of  cosmic  dust. 
Great  black  lanes  extend  from  and  around  it,  and 
even  the  luminous  parts  of  the  nebula  seem  to  ab- 
sorb the  light  of  the  stars  behind,  diminishing  their 
brightness  a  whole  magnitude  or  more  where  they 
are  veiled  by  it.  This  entire  region  of  sky  is  most 
strange  to  the  photographic  eye.  An  outlier  of  the 
nebula  just  mentioned  surrounds  the  star  Nu  (v)  in 
Scorpio,  and  its  veiling  effect  upon  the  stars  is  even 
more  evident.  There  is  a  similar  appearance  around 
the  star  Theta  (0)  Ophiuchi,  not  far  away.  The 
sense  of  some  appalling  mystery  in  this  part  of  the 
firmament  is  heightened  by  what  Barnard  says  of  a 
thing  which  has  reappeared  again  and  again  on  his 
photographs  during  the  past  fifteen  years,  at  a  point 
which  he  describes  as  lying  very  closely  to  R.  A.  xviii 
hours,  25  m.,  31  s.;  Decl.  S.  26°,  9'  (near  the  star 
Lambda  (A)  in  Sagittarius). 

"It  is  a  small,  black  hole  in  the  sky.  It  is  round 
and  sharply  denned.  Its  measured  diameter  on  the 

58 


EVENING   SKY    AT   THE    SUMMER   SOLSTICE 

negative  is  2 '.6.  On  account  of  its  sharpness  and 
smallness  and  its  isolation,  this  is  perhaps  the  most 
remarkable  of  all  the  black  holes  with  which  I  am 
acquainted.  It  lies  in  an  ordinary  part  of  the  Milky 
Way,  and  is  not  due  to  the  presence  or  absence  of 
stars,  but  seems  really  to  be  a  marking  on  the  sky 
itself"  (Astro physical  Journal,  January,  1910). 

These  things  really  transcend  explanation  (see 
Curiosities  of  the  Sky). 

Above  Ophiuchus  and  his  Serpent,  almost  exact- 
ly overhead  in  the  latitude  of  40°  N.,  we  see  the 
quadrilateral  figure  marked  out  by  four  of  the  prin- 
cipal stars  of  the  constellation  Hercules.  The  head 
of  Draco,  described  in  Chapter  I,  is  beyond  it  toward 
the  north-northeast.  Hercules  stands  feet  upward 
in  the  sky,  his  head,  indicated  by  the  star  Alpha,  or 
Ras  Algethi,  the  "Kneeler's  Head,"  being  situated  a 
few  degrees  west-northwest  of  Ras  Alhague.  Thus 
the  two  giants  have  their  heads  together.  But  while 
the  occupation  of  Ophiuchus  is  plain,  nobody,  not 
even  in  ancient  times,  when  the  constellation  received 
its  name,  has  ever  been  able  to  say  what  Hercules  is 
laboring  at.  When  he  was  on  the  earth  everybody 
followed  his  deeds  and  understood,  if  they  could 
not  emulate,  them.  He  was  as  comprehensible  as  a 
modern  pugilist.  Now,  however,  that  he  has  been 
translated  to  the  stars,  his  labors  are  of  a  more 
mysterious  nature,  and,  judging  from  his  attitude,  he 
finds  them  harder  than  any  he  undertook  for  the 
benefit  of  mankind  here  below.  One  is  tempted  to 

59 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

think  that  the  powers  he  offended,  when  he  boldly 
entered  the  land  of  shades  and  snatched  the  wife  of 
his  friend,  King  Admetus,  from  the  hand  of  Death 
himself,  are  now  taking  an  ample  vengeance. 

Ras  Algethi  is  a  very  beautiful  double  star,  one  red, 
the  other  green  or  blue,  and  both,  strangely  enough, 
are  variable  in  brightness.  Their  distance  apart  is 
4". 7.  Their  spectrum  indicates  that  they  are  ad- 
vanced toward  extinction  many  stages  beyond  our 
sun. 

The  star  Zeta  (£),  one  of  those  in  the  quadrilateral, 
is  a  closer  double,  distance  about  i",  and  is  binary, 
the  period  of  revolution  being  about  thirty-five  years. 

And  now  for  a  great  marvel.  Let  the  eye  range 
slowly  from  Eta  (rj)  directly  toward  Zeta  (£).  When 
one-third  of  the  distance  between  the  two  stars  has 
been  passed,  a  faint,  glimmering  speck  will  be  per- 
ceived. Perhaps  you  will  need  an  opera-glass  to 
make  sure  that  you  see  it.  This  is  the  ''Great 
Cluster  in  Hercules."  You  must  go  to  the  southern 
hemisphere  to  find  its  match  anywhere  in  the  sky. 
It  is  a  ball  of  suns !  Now  you  need  a  telescope.  You 
must  have  one.  You  must  either  buy  or  borrow  it, 
or  you  must  pay  a  visit  to  an  observatory,  for  this  is 
a  thing  that  no  intelligent  human  being  in  these  days 
can  afford  not  to  see.  Can  it  be  possible  that  any 
man  can  know  that  fifteen  thousand  suns  are  to  be 
seen,  burning  in  a  compact  globular  cluster,  and  not 
long  to  regard  them  with  his  own  eyes?  Of  what 
use  is  description  in  such  a  case  ?  The  language  has 

60 


EVENING    SKY    AT   THE    SUMMER    SOLSTICE 

not  yet  been  invented  to  depict  such  things.  Human 
speech  comes  down  to  us  from  the  times  when  men 
did  not  need  the  tongue  of  the  gods  to  tell  what  they 
saw.  When  Galileo  invented  the  telescope,  and 
Herschel  multiplied  its  powers  a  thousandfold,  they 
should  have  found  a  language  fitted  to  describe  their 
discoveries.  But  if  you  cannot  get  a  look  at  the  Her- 
cules cluster  through  a  powerful  telescope,  photog- 
raphy comes  to  your  aid.  Look  at  one  of  the  won- 
derful Lick  or  Yerkes  photographs  of  it,  and  pause 
long  on  what  you  see.  Note  the  crowding  of  those 
suns  toward  the  centre,  note  the  glittering  spiral  lines 
formed  by  those  which  seem  streaming  and  hurrying 
from  all  sides  to  join  the  marvellous  congregation — 
and  then  turn  again  to  that  faint  speck  in  the  sky, 
which  is  all  that  the  naked  eye  reveals  of  the  wonder, 
and  reflect  upon  the  meaning  of  space  and  the 
universe. 

We  now  turn  farther  east,  still  keeping  the  eyes 
directed  high  in  the  sky,  and  just  at  the  edge  of  the 
Milky  Way,  with  two  minute  stars  making  a  little 
triangle  with  it,  we  see  Vega  or  Alpha  Lyrae,  the  as- 
tonishing brilliant  that  flashes  on  the  strings  of  the 
heavenly  Lyre.  At  the  Vernal  Equinox  it  was  just 
rising  far  over  in  the  northeast;  now  it  is  the  un- 
questioned queen  of  that  quarter  of  the  sky.  I  like 
to  think  of  Emerson  when  looking  at  that  star.  There 
is  a  sentence  of  his  which  reflects  it  like  a  mirror. 
When  he  strove  to  rouse  the  "  sluggard  intellect  of 
this  continent,"  to  "look  from  under  its  iron  lids," 

61 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

he  could  find  no  stronger  image  than  that  of  poetry 
reviving  here  and  leading  in  a  new  age,  "as  the  star 
in  the  constellation  Harp,  which  now  flames  in  our 
zenith,  astronomers  announce,  shall  one  day  be  the 
Pole-star  for  a  thousand  years." 

Of  the  effect  of  the  Precession  of  the  Equinoxes,  to 
which  Emerson  refers,  we  have  already  spoken.  But 
it  is  a  long  time  in  the  future  that  Vega  will  begin, 
or  rather  resume,  its  reign  as  the  Star  of  the  North. 
And,  curiously  enough,  when  that  time  comes  the 
northern  hemisphere  will  have  its  Summer  Solstice 
when  the  sun  is  just  opposite  to  the  place  which  it 
now  occupies  at  that  season,  and  when  Antares  will 
be  no  more  a  summer  star,  but  will  flash  its  ruddy 
light  upon  the  snows  of  a  winter  longer  and  colder 
than  the  winters  that  we  know,  while  Orion  will  blaze 
above  the  summer  landscapes.  This  immense  revo- 
lution, some  have  thought,  may  be  the  measure  of  the 
' '  Great  Year ' '  of  Plato,  and  if  the  chronology  adopted 
for  dating  the  early  remains  of  civilization  recently 
uncovered  in  Crete  is  correct,  we  have  evidence  that 
mankind  has  persisted  through  one  of  these  vast 
v  periods,  and  that  nations  flourished  round  the  Medi- 
terranean when  Vega  was  formerly  the  Pole-star. 

The  beauty  of  Vega,  which  has  been  admired  and 
commented  on  from  the  earliest  times,  is  much  en- 
hanced when  it  is  viewed  with  a  telescope.  Then  the 
blueness  of  its  light  becomes  evident,  and  one  is  the 
more  astonished  at  the  unquestionable  fact  that  it 
outshines  the  sun  a  hundred  times.  A  sapphire  sun, 

62 


EVENING    SKY    AT   THE    SUMMER    SOLSTICE 

a  hundred  times  more  brilliant  than  ours!  The 
proper  motion  of  the  solar  system,  which  carries  us 
through  space  about  twelve  miles  per  second,  is 
bearing  us  almost  directly  toward  Vega,  so  that  as 
future  ages  unroll  the  star  should  become  brighter 
and  brighter  with  decrease  of  distance,  until  event- 
ually it  may  outshine  every  other  orb  in  the  firma- 
ment, and  put  Sirius  himself  to  shame  by  its  over- 
powering splendor. 

The  little  star  Epsilon  (e) ,  the  northernmost  one  of 
the  pair  near  Vega,  is  a  celebrated  quadruple,  easily 
seen  as  such  with  a  telescope  of  moderate  power. 

A  little  less  than  half  way  from  Beta  (|3)  to  Gamma 
(7)  the  telescope  discovers  the  wonderful  "Ring 
Nebula,"  a  delicate  circle  of  nebulous  light  with  a 
star  in  the  centre.  This  star  is  more  conspicuous  in 
photographs  than  in  telescopic  views.  This  object 
has  been  regarded  as  a  visual  proof  of  the  correctness 
of  Laplace's  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  solar  system 
from  nebulous  rings  surrounding  a  central  sun,  but 
the  Lick  photographs  show  that  the  ring  in  this  case 
is  of  a  strangely  complex  constitution.  Beta  is  both 
a  binary  and  a  variable  star. 

Buried  in  the  Milky  Way,  east  of  Lyra,  lies  the 
great  "Northern  Cross"  in  the  constellation  Cygnus. 
It  is  more  perfect  than  the  famous  "Southern  Cross," 
and  much  larger.  The  star  Alpha  (a),  at  the  head 
of  the  main  beam  of  the  cross,  is  also  called  Denib, 
the  "Tail,"  as  it  is  situated  in  the  tail  of  the  "Swan," 
Cygnus.  Its  parallax  is  undetermined,  and  New- 

63 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

comb  placed  it  in  his  "XM"  class,  described  under 
Spica  in  Chapter  I.  The  Milky  Way  is  exceedingly 
beautiful  in  Cygnus.  Note  particularly  the  broad 
gaps  and  rifts  in  it.  Around  and  above  the  head  of 
the  cross  there  are  dark  spaces,  which  are  specially 
impressive  when  the  eyes  are  partly  averted  from 
them.  Downward  from  Cygnus  the  stream  of  the 
galaxy  is  seen  to  be  partially  split  longitudinally.  It 
resembles  a  broad  river  meandering,  in  the  droughts 
of  the  "dog  days,"  over  flats  and  shallows,  and  inter- 
rupted with  long  sand-bars.  How  can  stars  have 
been  thrown  together  into  such  forms  ?  What  whirls 
and  eddies  of  the  ether  can  have  made  these  pools  of 
shining  sunst 

The  star  in  the  foot  of  the  cross,  Beta  (]3),  or  Al- 
bireo — a  beautiful  name  without  signification,  since 
Allen  shows  that  it  originated  in  a  blunder  (see  his 
Star  Names  and  Their  Meanings) — is  one  of  the  most 
attractive  objects  in  the  heavens  for  those  who  are 
fortunate  enough  to  possess  a  telescope.  The  smallest 
glass  easily  shows  it  to  be  double,  and  the  combina- 
tion is  unrivalled  for  beauty,  the  larger  star  being  a 
pale  topaz  and  the  smaller  a  deep  sapphire.  Their 
magnitudes  are  three  and  seven,  and  their  distance 
apart  about  34".  I  have  separated  them  with  a 
field-glass. 

Cygnus  contains  one  of  the  nearest  stars  in  the 
sky,  a  twinkler  not  too  easily  seen  with  the  naked 
eye — a  striking  proof  of  the  fact  that  the  mere  faint- 
ness  of  a  star  is  in  itself  no  indication  of  excessive 

64 


EVENING    SKY    AT   THE    SUMMER    SOLSTICE 

distance.  This  is  known  as  61  Cygni,  and  will  be 
found  on  Chart  X.  It  is  a  double,  possible  binary, 
easily  separated  with  a  small  telescope,  the  distance 
being  about  21".  The  distance  of  61  Cygni  is  about  ^ 
40,000,000,000,000  miles.  It  was  long  known  as  the 
second  nearest  star  in  the  sky,  the  nearest  being 
Alpha  Centauri  in  the  southern  hemisphere;  but  at 
least  one  nearer  one  has  more  lately  been  discovered, 
and  it,  too,  is  a  very  small  star.  The  combined  lumi- 
nosity of  the  two  stars  in  61  Cygni  is  only  one-tenth 
that  of  the  sun.  Amid  so  many  giants  it  is  reassuring 
to  find  a  sun  smaller  than  ours;  it  restores  our  self- 
esteem  to  find  that  our  solar  hamlet  is  not  the  very 
least  in  the  empire  of  space. 

Southeast  of  Cygnus,  near  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
starry  river,  is  Aquila,  the  "Eagle."  Its  chief  star, 
Altair,  "Eagle,"  recalls  Antares,  not  by  its  color,  for 
it  is  not  red  but  white,  but  by  the  singular  arrange- 
ment of  two  small  stars  standing  one  on  either  side 
of  it.  Here,  too,  the  Milky  Way  is  very  splendid,  at- 
taining astonishing  brightness  lower  down,  in  Scutum 
Sobieskii,  "Sobieski's  Shield."  The  naming  of  this 
constellation  was  a  posthumous  reward  to  the  heroic 
king,  John  Sobieski,  for  saving  Europe  by  the  defeat 
of  the  Turks  under  the  walls  of  Vienna,  after  their  vic- 
torious advance  from  Constantinople,  emphasized  in 
the  public  mind  by  the  appearance  of  Halley's  Comet, 
had  seemed  to  threaten  a  Moslem  conquest.  Twice 
Halley's  Comet  had  alarmed  Europe  in  connection 
with  the  Turks,  first  in  1456,  after  they  had  taken 

65 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

Constantinople,  and  again  in  1682  when  they  swept 
upon  Vienna,  so  that  it  was  a  natural  thought  to  asso- 
ciate Sobieski's  victory  with  some  "sign  in  the  sky," 
and  a  more  appropriate  one  could  hardly  have  been 
found  than  the  "shield,"  bossed  with  star-clusters, 
which  Hevelius  selected  for  the  purpose.  The  south- 
ern part  of  the  constellation  Aquila  is  sometimes 
called  Antinous.  For  the  beautiful  Oriental  legend 
of  the  Spinning  Damsel  and  the  Magpie  Bridge  con- 
nected with  Aquila  and  Lyra,  see  Astronomy  with  the 
Naked  Eye.  Newcomb  gives  Altair  ten  times  the  lu- 
minosity of  the  sun. 

The  constellations  Delphinus  and  Anser  et  Vul- 
pecula  will  be  dealt  with  in  the  next  chapter.  In  the 
mean  time  let  us  turn  to  the  western  half  of  the  sky. 

Just  west  of  the  meridian,  near  the  zenith,  gleams 
the  glorious  Northern  Crown,  Corona  Borealis.  The 
head  of  Serpens  is  right  underneath  it.  It  is,  perhaps, 
the  most  charming  of  all  asterisms.  It  could  hardly 
be  called  anything  else  than  a  crown  or  a  wreath. 
The  perfection  of  the  figure  is  surprising.  If  its  stars 
were  larger  it  would  be  the  cynosure  of  the  sky,  but 
small  as  they  are  they  produce  an  effect  of  ensemble 
that  could  not  have  been  exceeded  if  human  hands 
had  arranged  them  there.  The  superior  brightness  of 
one  of  them,  Alpha  "Gemma,"  or  "The  Pearl,"  adds 
greatly  to  the  effectiveness  of  the  combination.  It  is 
the  work  of  a  master  jeweller!  Yet,  as  I  have  else- 
where shown,  this  curious  assemblage  of  stars  is  but 
a  passing  phenomenon,  for  they  are  travelling  in  vari- 

66 


EVENING    SKY    AT   THE    SUMMER    SOLSTICE 

cms  directions,  with  various  speeds,  and  in  the  course 
of  time  the  Northern  Crown  will  dissolve  like  a  figure 
in  the  clouds.  In  Greek  mythology  it  was  generally 
called  the  Crown  of  Ariadne.  Just  under  the  star 
Epsilon  (E)  is  a  wonderful  variable,  which  in  1866 
suddenly  blazed  up  to  the  second  magnitude,  and 
was  for  a  time  regarded  as  a  new  star.  Nothing  is 
known  of  its  periods  of  change.  It  is  not  now  visible 
to  the  naked  eye. 

West  of  Corona  the  most  conspicuous  object  is 
Arcturus  in  Bootes.  This  entire  constellation  is  now 
well  placed  for  observation.  But  first  a  few  words 
about  Arcturus,  a  star  of  which  one  can  never  tire, 
so  steeped  is  it  in  the  poetry  and  history  of  the  most 
interesting  nations  of  the  past.  Like  Alpha  Centauri, 
Arcturus  was  used  as  a  " temple  star"  in  both  Egypt 
and  Greece,  and  it  was  of  much  importance  as  a 
prognosticator  of  the  seasons.  When  a  conspicuous 
star  was  seen  rising  just  ahead  of  the  sun,  it  was  said 
to  rise  heliacally,  and  it  served  as  a  sentinel  to  an- 
nounce the  oncoming  day.  To  the  priests  this  was 
important,  because  it  warned  them  of  the  moment 
when  it  was  necessary  to  begin  their  preparations 
for  the  sunrise  ceremonies  in  the  temples.  To  the 
husbandman  such  a  herald  seemed  specially  con- 
nected with  the  particular  season  in  which  it  ap- 
peared. In  this  way  Arcturus  came  to  give  its  name 
to  the  ancient  Greek  autumn.  In  Sophocles'  (Edipus 
the  King  there  is  a  passage  which  affords  striking 
evidence  of  the  popular  knowledge  of  Arcturus  in 

67 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

this  connection.  When  the  herdsman  from  Mount 
Cithseron  is  brought  to  prove  that  he  had  nurtured 
CEdipus  as  a  child,  one  of  his  former  comrades,  to 
recall  the  old  man's  recollections,  reminds  him  that 
they  had  kept  their  flocks  together  "  three  whole  half- 
years  from  Spring  to  Arcturus"  (meaning  from  Spring 
to  Autumn,  since  Arcturus  then  rose  heliacally  at 
the  beginning  of  September).  Whatever  might  be  the 
local  names  for  Autumn,  over  all  the  Greek  world  it 
was  popularly  known  as  the  "time  of  Arcturus." 

Although  the  Revised  Version  has  struck  out  Arc- 
turus and  substituted  "the  Bear"  in  that  famous 
passage  in  which  the  Almighty  answers  Job  "out  of 
the  whirlwind,"  yet  for  lovers  of  the  Bible  this  will 
always  be  "Job's  Star,"  always  surrounded  to  the 
imagination  with  the  momentous  circumstances  sug- 
gested by  that  tremendous  and  unanswerable  demand : 

"Canst  thou  call  forth  Arcturus  and  his  sons?" 

No  scientific  fact  known  about  it — not  its  gigantic 
size,  not  its  inexplicable  flight  through  space — can 
be  so  imposing  as  the  impressions  conveyed  in  its 
choice  by  Jehovah  to  illustrate  His  illimitable  power. 
One  likes  to  think  that  the  Hebrew  poet  really  did 
mean  to  write  "Arcturus,"  for  there  is  something 
sublime  in  the  idea  of  representing  the  Great  Maker 
of  All  as  calling  one  of  His  stars  by  name. 

Arcturus  is  sometimes  referred  to  under  the  name 
of  Arctophilax,  the  "Bear-driver,"  a  name  properly 
belonging  to  the  constellation  Bootes.  In  modern 

68 


EVENING    SKY    AT   THE    SUMMER    SOLSTICE 

astronomical  history  it  will  always  be  memorable  for 
the  passage  over  it  of  the  celebrated  Comet  of  1858, 
Donati's  Comet.  At  one  time  the  star  was  almost 
involved  in  the  head  of  the  great  comet,  and  yet  it 
shone  through  the  obstructing  vapors  with  virtually 
undiminished  lustre.  It  was  a  spectacle,  said  Pro- 
fessor Nichol,  the  like  of  which  no  one  might  see 
again  though  he  should  spend  on  earth  fifty  lives. 
At  the  beginning  the  comet  was  a  little  plume  of  fire, 
"shaped  like  a  bird  of  paradise,"  but  it  soon  bright- 
ened into  a  stupendous  scimetar,  brandished  in  the 
sunset,  and  when  it  swept  over  Arcturus  the  whole 
astronomical  world  was  watching  to  see  what  would 
happen  to  the  star. 

Among  the  other  stars  of  Bootes,  Epsilon  (*)  is 
specially  worthy  of  notice,  being  a  remarkable  binary 
of  finely  contrasted  colors,  orange  and  sea-green.  The 
distance  is  2". 2 5,  and  the  period  of  revolution  long 
but  undetermined.  Struve  called  this  star  "Pul- 
cherrima,"  on  account  of  its  exceeding  beauty. 

Although  Arcturus  by  its  splendor  belittles  the  rest 
of  the  constellation,  yet  it  requires  no  difficult  exer- 
cise of  the  imagination  to  see  a  giant  form  there, 
towering  behind  the  Bear,  and  urging  on  his  dogs  in 
the  chase.  The  dogs  are  represented  by  Canes 
Venatici,  of  the  beauty  of  whose  chief  star,  Cor  Caroli, 
I  have  spoken  in  the  preceding  chapter.  In  the  upper 
part  of  Canes  Venatici,  about  3°  southwest  of  Benet- 
nasch,  is  the  celebrated  "Whirlpool  Nebula"  of  Lord 
Rosse,  which  modern  photographs  show  in  a  form  so 

69 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

suggestive  of  tremendous  disruptive  forces  that  cos- 
mogonists  are  at  a  loss  to  explain  it. 

We  now  drop  down  to  Libra,  the  " Balance,"  which 
lies  just  west  of  Scorpio  and  east  of  Virgo.  There  is 
evidence  that  this  constellation  originally  represented 
the  outstretched  claws  of  the  Scorpion.  Yet  as  an 
independent  constellation  it  is  very  ancient.  It  has 
only  two  stars  of  any  considerable  magnitude,  Alpha 
(a)  and  Beta  (]3).  The  former  must  have  faded,  for 
it  is  now  the  fainter.  It  lies  almost  on  the  ecliptic. 
These  stars  are  interesting  on  account  of  their  curi- 
ous names,  which  themselves  tend  to  prove  that 
Libra  once  formed  a  part  of  Scorpio.  Alpha  is  Zu- 
benelgenubi,  the  "Southern  Claw,"  and  Beta  Zu- 
beneschemali,  the  "Northern  Claw."  These  titles, 
as  Allen  shows,  have  been  derived  through  the 
Arabic  from  the  Greek  names  current  in  the  time  of 
Ptolemy.  The  first  is  yellowish-white,  and  the  second 
pale  green.  Any  good  eye  detects  the  difference  of 
color  at  a  glance,  although  the  stars  are  about  ten 
degrees  apart.  Zubenelgenubi  is  widely  double,  sep- 
arable with  an  opera-glass. 

Along  the  western  horizon  we  recognize  our  old 
friends  Virgo,  Corvus,  and  Leo,  while  high  in  the 
northwest  is  Ursa  Major,  head  downward,  and  di- 
rectly in  the  north  Ursa  Minor,  standing  on  the  end 
of  his  tail,  poised  like  an  acrobat  on  Polaris.  The 
head  of  Draco  shows  finely  east  of  the  meridian,  and 
low  down  in  the  northeast  is  the  "Laconian  Key" 
of  Cassiopeia.  But  that  is  for  another  evening. 

70 


Ill 

THE  EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  AUTUMNAL  EQUINOX 

"When  descends  on  the  Atlantic 
The  gigantic 

Storm-wind  of  the  Equinox, 
Landward  in  his  wrath  he  scourges 
The  toiling  surges, 

Laden  with  sea- weed  from  the  rocks." 

T  ONGFELLOW'S  vivid  lines  reproduce  the  popular 
L/  impression  of  the  character  of  the  season  when 
the  descending  sun  again  touches  the  equator,  giv- 
ing the  whole  world  once  more  days  and  nights 
of  equal  length,  before  he  dips  to  the  south  and 
leaves  the  northern  hemisphere  to  face  the  on-corning 
blasts  of  winter.  There  is  no  superstition  more  deep- 
ly planted  than  that  of  the  "equinoctial  storms." 
There  are  such  storms,  it  is  true,  but  they  by  no  means 
always  burst  at  the  epoch  of  the  Equinox.  The  re- 
adjustment of  atmospheric  conditions  goes  on  grad- 
ually, and  there  is  often,  just  at  the  equinoctial  mo- 
ment, a  spell  of  serene  weather  that  can  hardly  be 
matched  at  any  other  season  of  the  year.  The  at- 
mosphere, recovered  from  the  excessive  heats  of 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

summer,  possesses  a  quality  of  softness  and  "misty 
fruitfulness "  that  tranquillizes  the  spirit  and  makes 
nature  doubly  charming.  It  is  the  late  afternoon  of 
the  year,  when  life,  refreshed  by  the  siestas  of  sum- 
mer, resumes  its  activity,  and  the  heavens  no  less 
than  the  face  of  the  earth  greet  the  eye  with  a  smile 
of  divine  beauty. 

To  every  season  its  flowers — and  to  every  season 
its  stars.  The  gardens  of  the  sky  are  not  the  same 
in  autumn  as  in  summer,  either  in  their  arrangement 
or  in  the  peculiarities  of  their  bloom.  There  is  less 
parade  of  flaming  beauty,  but  the  richness  of  the 
coup  d'ceil  is  not  inferior.  And  just  as  in  our  Septem- 
ber parterres  some  of  the  summer  beauties  remain, 
though  a  little  faded,  to  support  with  their  charms 
their  stately  successors,  so  in  the  skies  of  autumn  a 
few  of  the  summer  stars  are  yet  seen,  though  some- 
what robbed  of  their  pristine  splendor  as  they  sink 
toward  the  sunset.  The  garland  of  the  Milky  Way 
has  now  been  flung  all  across  the  firmament,  from 
northeast  to  southwest,  and  while  Vega  and  Altair 
hang  half-way  down  the  curtain  of  the  west,  recalling 
the  glories  of  the  solstice,  Capella  appears  rising  in  the 
northeast,  and  Cassiopeia,  not  less  beautiful  in  the 
sky  than  when  she  awoke  the  jealousy  of  the  sea- 
nymphs,  is  seen  seated  in  her  "shiny  chair"  east 
of  the  meridian  in  the  north.  Between  Cassiopeia 
and  Capella  flashes  Perseus,  with  his  uplifted  sword 
marked  by  a  curve  of  stars  embedded  in  the  Milky 
Way,  and  above  Perseus  stands  Andromeda,  upright, 

72 


CHART    III THE    AUTUMN    EVENTNQ 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  AUTUMNAL  EQUINOX 

with  her  feet  toward  her  rescuer  and  her  head  touch, 
ing  the  "Great  Square  of  Pegasus,"  near  the  middle 
of  the  sky,  east  of  the  meridian.  Cepheus,  the  King, 
is  on  the  meridian  above  the  pole.  Cassiopeia, 
Cepheus,  Andromeda,  and  Perseus  constitute  the 
"Royal  Family"  of  the  sky,  more  enduring  than  the 
proud  dynasties  that  by  turns  have  ruled  terrestrial 
affairs. 

Low  down  in  the  south,  east  of  the  meridian,  glows 
Fomalhaut,  the  "Fish's  Mouth,"  the  leading  and  the 
only  bright  star  of  Piscis  Austrinus,  the  "Southern 
Fish."  With  this  singular  star  we  may  begin  our 
description  of  the  beauties  of  the  autumn  sky. 
Fomalhaut  well  deserves  the  epithet  singular,  if  for 
nothing  else  than  on  account  of  its  loneliness.  In 
this  respect  it  is  more  remarkable  than  Cor  Hydras, 
which  it  resembles  in  its  ruddy  color.  Fomalhaut  is 
the  characteristic  star  of  autumn  in  our  latitudes, 
for  the  same  reasons  that  cause  Antares  to  represent 
the  summer.  Like  Antares,  it  startles  the  wander- 
ing eye  and  fixes  the  attention,  although,  unlike  the 
great  star  of  Scorpio,  it  has  no  brilliant  entourage  to 
emphasize  its  supremacy  over  the  quarter  of  the  sky 
where  it  shines.  It  is  one  of  the  sailors'  stars.  To 
me  Fomalhaut  is  full  of  boyhood  memories  and  im- 
pressions gained  when  I  learned  the  stars  in  the 
country,  among  the  hills  that  shut  in  the  Schoharie 
before  it  pours  out  into  the  valley  of  the  Mohawk. 
Fortunately,  Thomas  Dick's  works  and  Burritt's 
Geography  of  the  Heavens  had  a  place  in  our  house, 
6  75 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

and  neither  The  Arabian  Nights  nor  The  Swiss  Family 
Robinson  was  able  to  dull  my  appetite  for  them.  In 
the  course  of  time  I  knew  all  the  great  stars  by  name, 
and  found  a  wonderful  pleasure  in  their  acquaintance, 
although  at  times  they  daunted  me  with  their  im- 
posing associations  with  Egypt,  the  Nile,  Babylonia, 
and  everything  that  is  most  ancient.  I  shall  never 
forget  Fomalhaut  flashing  along  in  the  south,  just 
skipping  the  hilltops  on  an  autumn  night.  A  great 
star  is  never  so  imposing  nor  so  mysterious  as  when 
it  thus  appears  to  be  watching  the  earth. 

How  immensely  would  the  interest  of  many  travel- 
lers' tales  be  heightened  if  only  they  had  known  the 
names  of  the  stars  whose  appearance  they  have  re- 
corded. When  you  have  the  name  of  the  star  that 
was  seen,  the  season  and  the  hour  of  the  night  are 
fixed  at  once,  and  the  whole  scene  is  filled  with  new 
life.  When  an  Alpine  climber,  waiting  in  his  lonely 
camp  high  on  the  mountain-side  for  the  coming  of 
day,  tells  me,  "I  saw  Sirius  glancing  at  us  over  a 
lofty  peak  far  in  the  east,"  I  know  immediately  the 
approximate  time  of  night  and  the  aspect  of  the 
heavens,  and  the  narrative  gains  in  vividness ;  but  if 
he  says  merely  that  he  saw  "a  star"  his  stroke  of 
description  misses.  And,  then,  the  names  of  many 
of  the  stars,  by  their  oddity  and  beauty,  enrich  the 
page  and  awake  the  imagination.  They  are,  in  them- 
selves, an  incantation. 

The  lover  of  the  stars  is  grateful  for  any  reference 
to  them  by  a  great  writer,  and  yet  he  is  often  disap- 

76 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  AUTUMNAL  EQUINOX 

pointed  by  the  inadequacy  of  descriptions  that  might 
easily  have  been  made  memorable  if  only  their  au- 
thors had  known  the  starry  heavens  a  little  better. 
How  disappointing,  for  instance,  is  this  passage  in 
R.  H.  Dana's  Two  Years  before  the  Mast: 

"Wednesday,  November  5th — The  weather  was  fine 
during  the  previous  night,  and  we  had  a  clear  view  of  the 
Magellan  Clouds  and  of  the  Southern  Cross.  The  Magel- 
lan Clouds  consist  of  three  small  nebulae  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  heavens — two  bright,  like  the  Milky  Way,  and 
one  dark.  They  are  first  seen  just  above  the  horizon  after 
crossing  the  southern  tropic.  When  off  Cape  Horn  they 
are  nearly  overhead.  The  Cross  is  composed  of  four  stars 
in  that  form,  and  it  is  said  to  be  the  brightest  constellation 
in  the  heavens. " 

That  is  all,  and  the  reader's  dissatisfaction  is  not 
confined  to  the  evidence  of  the  writer's  lack  of  famil- 
iarity with  the  stars,  but  becomes  yet  keener  when  he 
reflects  upon  the  brilliant  picture  which  Mr.  Dana's 
powers  of  description  should  have  enabled  him  to 
make  of  those  strange  sights  of  the  southern  sky, 
which,  in  his  day,  were  so  rarely  seen  by  northern 
eyes. 

On  the  equator  above  Fomalhaut,  and  close  to  the 
meridian,  appears  a  curious  group  of  stars  in  the 
form  of  a  letter  Y.  They  mark  the  hand  and  urn 
of  Aquarius,  the  "Waterman."  A  few  degrees  west- 
i  ward  from  this  figure  shines  the  Alpha  (a)  of  the 
constellation,  bearing  the  strange  name  Sadalmelik, 
the  "King's  Luck,"  or  "Lucky  One."  It  is  situated 

77 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

in  the  Waterman's  right  shoulder,  while  Beta  (j3), 
some  twelve  degrees  farther  west,  marks  the  left 
shoulder.  Beta's  distinctive  name  is  Sadalsuud,  the 
" Luckiest  of  the  Lucky."  Several  other  stars  in  this 
constellation  have  names  implying  good  -  fortune. 
The  Arabs  saw  the  Y-shaped  figure,  already  referred 
to,  as  a  tent,  and  the  star  Gamma  (7)  in  this  group 
is  called  Sadachbiah,  from  an  Arabic  phrase  which 
Professor  Whitney  translates  "Felicity  of  Tents." 
Upon  this  R.  H.  Allen  remarks  that  the  star  probably 
got  its  name  from  the  fact  that  it  rose  with  its  com- 
panions in  the  morning  twilight  of  spring,  "when, 
after  the  winter's  want  and  suffering,  the  nomads' 
tents  were  raised  on  the  freshening  pastures,  and  the 
pleasant  weather  set  in."  The  star  Zeta  (£),  in  this 
same  figure,  is  a  long -period  binary,  probably  750 
years,  and  a  beautiful  telescopic  object,  the  distance 
being  a  little  more  than  3",  while  the  two  stars  are 
nearly  equal,  and  very  white,  although  one  of  them 
seems  whiter  than  the  other. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  outline  of  the  constella- 
tion Aquarius  is  very  curious,  somewhat  resembling 
that  of  the  State  of  Louisiana  tipped  on  its  side.  The 
broader  part  of  it  runs  down  toward  Fomalhaut,  and 
the  northern  part  extends  westward,  like  an  L  add- 
ed to  a  house,  between  Equuleus  and  Capricornus. 
The  latter,  the  constellation  of  the  "Goat,"  is  relative- 
ly small  and  compact.  Its  two  most  interesting  stars 
are  Alpha  (a),  or  Algedi,  the  "Goat,"  and  Beta  ()3), 
or  Dabih  (signification  uncertain),  both  in  one  of  the 

78 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  AUTUMNAL  EQUINOX 

horns  of  the  imaginary  animal.  Each  of  these  stars 
is  a  wide  double.  The  distance  between  the  Alphas 
is  373"»  and  that  between  the  Betas  205",  the  latter 
being  more  than  a  tenth  of  the  apparent  diameter  of 
the  moon.  A  good  eye  sees  at  once  that  Alpha  is 
double;  but  the  two  stars  in  Beta  cannot  be  seen 
without  a  glass,  because  one  of  them  is  below  the 
sixth  magnitude,  the  minimum  visibile  for  the  naked 
eye.  Each  of  the  stars  in  Beta  is  a  telescopic  double. 
The  Goat  heads  westward,  and  the  stars  Delta  (8) 
and  Gamma  (y)  are  in  his  tail.  This  constellation 
has  given  us  our  Tropic  of  Capricorn,  because  the 
place  of  the  winter  solstice  was  once  within  its  bound- 
aries, although  now  we  find  it  far  west,  in  Sagittarius. 

Above  the  head  of  Capricornus  we  recognize  our 
old  acquaintance  Altair,  in  the  Eagle,  and  east  of 
this  the  singular  little  constellation  of  Delphinus,  the 
"Dolphin,"  often  called  "Job's  Coffin,"  a  name  for 
which  I  have  never  been  able  to  find  any  explanation. 
Like  all  small  constellations  whose  stars  are  com- 
paratively close  together,  it  immediately  attracts  the 
eye.  None  of  its  stars  exceeds  the  fourth  magnitude; 
but  three  of  them,  Alpha,  Beta,  and  Gamma,  are 
telescopic  doubles,  the  last  named  being  particularly 
beautiful  on  account  of  the  contrast  of  colors,  gold 
and  green;  distance  n". 

Directly  north  of  Altair  is  the  very  small  constella- 
tion of  Sagitta,  the  "Arrow,"  interesting  when  viewed 
with  an  opera-glass  for  its  row  of  little  stars  from 
which,  as  from  a  maypole  lying  horizontally,  depend 

79 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

loops  of  still  smaller  stars  looking  like  garlands.  In 
ancient  times  this  was  sometimes  called  "Cupid's 
Arrow,"  but  they  did  not  venture  to  represent  the 
little  god  himself.  Above  Sagitta  are  the  small  stars 
constituting  the  double  constellation  of  Vulpecula  et 
Anser,  the  "Little  Fox  and  the  Goose." 

Simply  pausing  to  recognize  the  presence  of  the 
Northern  Cross,  we  turn  to  the  eastern  side  of  the 
meridian,  where  we  find  Pegasus,  with  his  Great 
Square.  This  is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  figures 
in  the  sky.  The  star  at  the  northeastern  corner  of 
the  square  is  Alpheratz,  of  which  I  have  spoken  in 
the  Introduction,  as  belonging  in  common  to  Androm- 
eda and  Pegasus.  When  we  come  to  Cassiopeia  I  shall 
point  out  a  remarkable  fact  relating  to  Alpheratz  and 
its  twin,  Gamma  Pegasi,  about  15  degrees  directly 
south.  Every  lover  of  the  "classics"  of  course  feels  a 
thrill  of  pleasure  in  seeing  Pegasus  in  the  sky,  "in  wild 
flight  and  free."  One  can  spare  many  of  the  heroes 
for  the  sake  of  giving  him  room.  Shakespeare's  ref- 
erences to  the  constellations  are  much  less  frequent 
and  definite  than  one  could  wish,  but  he  has  clearly 
mentioned  one  or  two,  and  it  may  be  that  he  had  the 
starry  eidolon  of  the  Winged  Horse  in  his  eye  when  he 
wrote,  in  Troilus  and  Cressida: 

"  But  let  the  ruffian  Boreas  once  enrage 
The  gentle  Thetis,  and  anon  behold 
The  strong-ribbed  bark  through  liquid  mountains  cut, 
Bounding  between  the  two  moist  elements 
Like  Perseus'  horse." 

80 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  AUTUMNAL  EQUINOX 

The  constellation  extends  far  westward  from  the 
Square,  and  in  the  imaginative  sky  pictures  that 
illustrate  old  charts  of  the  heavens  the  star  Epsilon 
00  is  in  the  nose  of  Pegasus,  as  he  stretches  out  his 
neck  to  reach  his  foal,  Equuleus.  But  the  horse, 
with  his  feet  toward  the  north,  is  shown  upside  down, 
unless  you  turn  your  back  to  the  south  when  looking 
at  him.  The  star  Beta  (|3)  is  attractive  on  account 
of  its  neighbors  forming  a  striking  triangle  with  it; 
but  the  space  within  the  Square  is  relatively  vacant. 
Alpha  (a)  and  Beta  (|3)  are  respectively  Markab,  the 
"Saddle,"  and  Scheat  (signification  uncertain). 

South  of  the  Square  of  Pegasus  we  see  the  western 
part  of  the  constellation  of  Pisces,  whose  small  stars 
run  in  streams  toward  the  eastern  horizon.  Pisces 
furnishes  one  of  the  most  remarkable  examples  of 
this  phenomenon,  in  which  the  stars  are  seen  arrayed 
in  long,  winding  lines,  like  buttercups  following  a 
brook.  Cetus  is  also  seen  rising  south  of  Pisces ;  but 
we  shall  deal  with  these  constellations  later.  Mean- 
while we  return  to  Alpheratz,  at  the  northeast  corner 
of  the  Square  of  Pegasus.  The  name  is  derived  from 
an  Arabic  phrase  meaning  the  "Horse's  Navel"; 
but  the  star  is  now  generally  associated  with  Androm- 
eda, and  is,  indeed,  the  Alpha  of  that  constellation, 
and  shines  on  the  maiden's  head.  The  star  Delta  (S) , 
in  Andromeda,  marks  her  breast,  and  her  extended 
arms  and  chained  hands  are  shown  by  rows  and 
groups  of  small  stars  on  the  north  and  south.  Beta 
(j3),  or  Mirach,  is  in  her  girdle,  and  the  two  small 

81 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

stars  northwest  of  it  lead  the  eye  to  one  of  the  most 
wonderful  objects  in  the  sky — the  Great  Andromeda 
Nebula.  You  may  detect  it  as  a  misty  speck  with  the 
naked  eye;  an  opera-glass  will  show  you  plainly  that 
it  is  a  little  luminous  cloud.  In  Chart  X  its  position 
is  indicated  by  a  little  circle  near  the  star  Nu  (v). 
In  a  telescope  it  appears  of  a  spindle  shape,  with  a 
bright  axis,  but  the  best  views  of  it  are  afforded  by 
photography.  On  the  photographic  plate,  exposed 
continuously  for  hours  to  its  rays,  it  gradually  builds 
up  its  marvellous  form — the  great  central  condensa- 
tion, with  the  encircling  spirals,  emerging  in  all  their 
strange  splendor.  It  resembles  a  whirlwind  of  snow, 
and  the  appearance  of  swift  motion  and  terrific  force 
is  startling.  Its  spectrum,  instead  of  being  that  char- 
acteristic of  gases,  indicates  that  it  consists  principally 
of  matter  in  a  star-like  state  of  condensation,  and 
some  have  imagined  that  it  is  an  outside  universe, 
composed  of  stars  too  distant  to  be  separately  dis- 
tinguished, and  arrayed  in  mighty  spirals,  which  re- 
call the  form  of  the  Milky  Way.  The  latest  investi- 
gations show  evidence,  however,  that  it  is  partly 
nebular  in  constitution.  These  things  once  known, 
the  contemplative  eye  is  drawn  to  that  misty  speck 
as  to  a  magnet. 

The  star  Gamma  (7),  or  Almaack,  the  "  Badger, "  is 
in  Andromeda's  foot.  It  is  a  wonderful  triple  star, 
whose  largest  member  is  orange  in  color,  the  second 
emerald-green,  and  the  third  blue.  The  two  larger 
stars  are  easily  seen  with  an  ordinary  telescope,  the 

82 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  AUTUMNAL  EQUINOX 

distance  between  them  being  about  10",  but  the 
third  is  difficult,  the  distance  from  the  second  being, 
in  1908,  only  o".45.  The  last  two  form  a  binary, 
with  a  period  of  about  fifty-four  years.  When  they 
are  nearest  to  each  other  no  telescope  can  separate 
them.  The  colors  of  the  two  largest  stars  are  very 
striking,  and  yet  some  eyes  seem  incapable  of  ap- 
preciating them.  This  is  also  true  of  many  separate 
stars  in  the  sky  which  possess  distinctive  tints.  It 
is  a  fine  test  of  the  chromatic  capacity  of  the  eye  to 
be  able  to  enjoy  the  differences  among  the  hues  of 
the  stars.  Color-blindness  is  far  more  common  than 
is  usually  suspected,  and  is  apt  to  manifest  itself  in 
this  way  when  not  otherwise  noticed.  From  theo- 
retical considerations  Holmgren  has  shown  that  three 
varieties  of  color-blindness  may  exist:  first,  where 
the  sense  is  defective  for  only  one  color,  either  red, 
green,  or  violet ;  second,  where  two  colors,  either  red 
and  green  or  red  and  violet,  are  not  perceived;  and 
third,  where  the  defect  extends  to  three  colors,  in- 
cluding red,  green,  and  violet.  A  person  suffering 
from  either  of  these  forms  of  blindness  would  lose 
much  of  the  peculiar  beauty  exhibited  by  certain 
stars  and  combinations  of  stars. 

To  the  right  of  Almaack,  as  one  faces  north,  is  the 
little  constellation  of  Triangulum,  and  beyond  that, 
in  the  same  direction,  Aries,  the  "Ram,"  clearly 
marked  by  three  stars,  the  two  smaller  of  which 
are  quite  close  together.  The  largest  star,  Alpha  (a) , 
is  called  Hamal,  the  "Ram,"  or  "Sheep";  and  the 

83 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

next  largest,  Beta  (/3),  Sheratan,  the  ''Sign/'  this 
name  being  due  to  the  fact  that  in  the  days  of  Hip- 
parchus  Sheratan  marked  the  place  of  the  Vernal 
Equinox,  and  consequently  the  point  of  beginning 
of  the  year,  of  which  it  was  the  sign.  Gamma  (7) ,  the 
companion  of  Sheratan,  sometimes  called  Mesarthim 
(signification  uncertain) ,  is  a  beautiful  telescopic  dou- 
ble whose  components  are  8 ".8  apart.  The  smaller 
one  has  a  curious  tint  which  Webb  and  others  have 
described  as  "gray." 

Aries  was  originally  the  leader  of  the  zodiac,  but 
the  Precession  of  the  Equinoxes  has  now  thrown  it 
into  second  place,  and  brought  Pisces  to  the  front, 
the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac  being  like  a  fixed  cir- 
cular framework  through  which  the  constellations 
drift  toward  the  east.  The  sign  Aries  remains  the 
first  of  the  zodiac,  but  is  occupied  by  the  constella- 
tion Pisces.  Is  there  in  any  language  a  word  more 
mysteriously  impressive  than  "zodiac"?  Astrological 
superstition,  perhaps,  partly  accounts  for  this.  The 
word  comes  from  the  Greek  for  "animal,"  because 
nearly  all  the  constellations  of  the  zodiacal  circle  are 
representations  of  animals.  It  surrounds  the  sky 
with  a  great  menagerie  of  starry  phantasms,  through 
the  midst  of  which  the  sun  pursues  his  annual  round. 
When  he  enters  the  sign  of  Aries  spring  commences; 
when  he  enters  Cancer  summer  reigns;  when  he 
reaches  Libra  it  is  the  beginning  of  autumn,  and 
when  he  is  in  Capricorn  winter  is  at  hand.  We  have 
nothing  quite  equal  to  the  old  Greek  story  of  Phaeton 

84 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  AUTUMNAL  EQUINOX 

begging  from  his  father,  Phoebus  Apollo,  the  privilege 
of  driving  the  Chariot  of  the  Sun,  and  losing  his  way 
through  terror  of  the  threatening  forms  amid  which 
lay  his  course — the  "Scorpion,"  with  his  fiery  sting 
uplifted  to  strike;  the  huge  "Crab,"  sprawling  across 
the  way;  the  fierce  "Ram,"  with  lowered  head;  the 
great  "Bull,"  charging  headlong  upon  him;  the  terri- 
ble "Lion,"  with  bristling  mane;  the  "Archer,"  with 
bow  bent  and  arrow  aimed;  the  ''Goat,"  with  crooked, 
threatening  horns;  the  sturdy  "Waterman,"  empty- 
ing his  vast  urn  in  a  raging  flood;  the  balance  of 
"Libra"  extended  as  if  to  weigh  his  fate — even  the 
benign  aspect  of  the  "Twins"  and  the  gentle  look  of 
the  sedate  "Virgin"  could  not  restore  his  equanimity. 
It  was  the  wildest  of  all  wild  rides,  and  Phaeton  was 
the  precursor  of  the  modern  chauffeur  gone  mad  with 
the  speed  of  his  flight,  and  crazed  by  the  pursuit  of 
phantoms  which  rise  remorselessly  in  his  path.  It 
was  probably  in  Aries  that  the  inventors  of  the  story 
imagined  the  beginning  of  the  adventure. 

Below  the  feet  of  Andromeda,  in  the  northeast, 
appears  Perseus,  her  rescuer,  hurrying  to  the  combat 
with  the  on-coming  Sea  Monster,  and  carrying  the 
blood-freezing  head  of  Medusa  in  one  hand  and  his 
diamond-hilted  sword  in  the  other.  He  wraps  the 
glory  of  the  Milky  Way  around  him  like  a  flying 
mantle,  and  brandished  in  the  direction  of  Cassiopeia, 
the  maiden's  mother,  and  of  King  Cepheus,  her  father, 
is  seen  his  magic  blade,  made  splendid  in  the  sky  by 
one  of  the  finest  assemblages  of  small  stars  that  can 

85 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

anywhere  be  seen.  This  beautiful  star-swarm,  vis- 
ible to  the  naked  eye  as  a  glowing  patch  in  the  Milky 
Way,  is  indicated  in  Chart  X  by  a  double  cluster  of 
dots  above  the  star  Eta  (n).  Seen  with  a  powerful 
opera-glass,  or  better  with  a  small  telescope,  it  is  an 
object  that  one  can  never  cease  to  admire  and  wonder 
at.  It  is  so  bright  that  the  unassisted  eye  sees  it 
as  soon  as  it  is  directed  toward  that  part  of  the  sky. 
It  seems  to  throw  a  halo  over  the  surrounding  sky, 
as  if  at  that  point  the  galaxy  had  been  tied  into  a 
gleaming  knot.  It  is  popularly  called  the  "Sword 
Hand  of  Perseus."  But  how  inadequate  seems  such 
terrestrial  imagery  when  we  reflect  that  here  a  vast 
chaotic  nebula  has  been,  through  aeons  of  evolution, 
transformed  into  a  kingdom  of  starry  beauty. 

The  star  Alpha  (a)  Persei,  also  known  as  Algenib 
(Arabic  Aljanib,  the  "Side"),  is  the  centre  of  a  bend- 
ing row  following  the  curve  of  the  Milky  Way.  The 
appearance  of  this  curve  of  stars  is  very  attractive 
to  the  eye.  Algenib  is  a  beautiful  star,  allied  to  our 
sun  in  spectroscopic  character,  and  approaching  us 
*•  at  the  rate  of  about  560,000  miles  per  day. 

But  the  greatest  marvel  of  Perseus  is  the  '  *  Demon 
Star,"  Algol,  in  the  head  of  Medusa,  which  is  repre- 
sented depending  from  the  hero's  right  hand.  Algol 
bears  the  Greek  letter  Beta  (j3) .  It  is  the  most  won- 
derful of  variables,  and  its  variations  can  be  watched 
without  any  instrumental  assistance.  For  the  greater 
part  of  the  time  it  is  of  nearly  the  second  magni- 
tude; but  once  every  two  days,  twenty  hours,  and 

86 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  AUTUMNAL  EQUINOX 

forty-nine  seconds  it  begins  suddenly  to  lose  light, 
and  in  about  four  hours  or  less  it  fades  to  nearly  the 
fourth  magnitude,  being  then  no  brighter  than  some 
of  the  faint  stars  around  it.  Almost  immediately  it 
begins  to  brighten  again,  and  in  the  course  of  about 
three  hours  is  seen  shining  with  its  pristine  splendor. 
The  cause  of  these  singular  variations  is  believed  to 
be  the  existence  of  a  dark  star,  or  a  mass  of  meteors, 
revolving  round  Algol  at  such  close  quarters  that  a 
distance  of  only  3,000,000  miles  separates  the  centres 
of  the  two.  Algol  itself  is  demons trably  considerably 
larger  than  our  sun,  but  of  less  density.  The  Arabic 
name  for  this  star  was  Al  Ghul,  the  " Demon,"  or 
" Fiend  of  the  Woods,"  and  our  word  ghoul  comes 
from  it.  The  imagination  of  a  Poe  could  not  have 
represented  a  more  startling  thing — a  sun  that  winks 
like  a  gloating  demon!  One  may  easily  cultivate  an 
uncanny  feeling  while  watching  it.  No  one  need  be 
surprised  that  the  astrologers  make  much  of  the 
malign  influence  of  Algol.  If  one  had  faith  in  them, 
one  might  as  well  be  born  with  the  millstone  of  fate 
tied  to  his  neck  as  to  have  Algol  in  his  nativity. 

Below  Perseus,  and  not  very  high  above  the  hori- 
zon, sparkles  the  brilliant  Capella,  but  that  is  for  the 
next  chapter.  We  turn  to  Cassiopeia.  Her  "W,"  or 
"Laconian  Key,"  is  a  familiar  asterism  to  all  who 
know  anything  at  all  of  the  starry  heavens.  The  five 
stars  forming  this  figure  are  also  represented  as  mark- 
ing the  Chair  in  which  the  unfortunate  though  beau- 
tiful queen  sits.  There  is  a  delightful  reference  to 

87 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

this  " Chair"  in  Xavier  de  Maistre's  Expedition  Noc- 
turne autour  de  ma  Chambre.  When  the  hero  dis- 
covers the  slipper  of  his  fair  neighbor  of  the  upper 
flat  visible  on  the  balcony  above,  he  wishes  "to  com- 
pare the  pleasure  that  a  modest  man  may  feel  in 
contemplating  a  lady's  slipper  with  that  imparted  by 
the  contemplation  of  the  stars."  Accordingly,  he 
chooses  the  first  constellation  that  he  can  see.  "It 
was,  if  I  mistake  not,  Cassiopeia's  Chair  which  I  saw 
over  my  head,  and  I  looked  by  turns  at  the  constella- 
tion and  the  slipper,  the  slipper  and  the  constellation. 
I  perceived  then  that  these  two  sensations  were  of 
a  totally  different  nature;  the  one  was  in  my  head, 
while  the  other  seemed  to  me  to  have  its  seat  in  the 
region  of  the  heart." 

The  names  of  three  of  the  five  stars  forming  the 
"Chair"  are:  Alpha  (a)  Schedar  (from  Al  Sadr,  the 
"Breast");  Beta  (|3)  Caph  (Arabic  Kaff,  "Hand"); 
and  Delta  (S)  Ruchbah  or  Rucbar,  the  "Knee." 
Caph  and  Ruchbar  are  of  particular  interest,  the  first 
because,  together  with  Alpheratz  and  Gamma  Pegasi 
(often  called  Algenib,  although  that  name  belongs  to 
Alpha  Persei),  it  lies  almost  exactly  on  the  Equinoc- 
tial Colure,  or  First  Meridian  of  the  Heavens;  and 
Ruchbah,  because,  as  explained  in  Chapter  I,  it  lies 
in  a  line  with  Polaris  and  the  true  pole,  thus  serving 
to  indicate  the  position  of  Polaris  with  regard  to  the 
pole  at  any  time.  Caph,  Alpheratz,  and  Gamma 
Pegasi  are  often  called  the  "Three  Guides,"  because, 
as  just  explained,  they  graphically  show  the  line  of 

88 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  AUTUMNAL  EQUINOX 

the  Equinoctial  Colure,  which  is  a  great  circle  pass- 
ing through  the  pole  and  cutting  the  equator  at  the 
Vernal  and  Autumnal  Equinoxes.  On  the  opposite 
side  of  the  pole  this  line  passes  between  the  stars 
Gamma  (7)  and  Delta  (S)  in  Ursa  Major. 

The  star  Eta  (TJ)  is  an  extremely  beautiful  binary,  X 
period  about  two  hundred  years,  distance  at  pres- 
ent more  than  6".  The  combination  of  colors  is 
especially  remarkable,  the  larger  component  being 
orange,  and  the  smaller  purple.  Piazzi  Smyth  saw 
the  color  of  the  smaller  star  as  " Indian  red,"  and 
others  have  variously  called  it  "garnet,"  "violet," 
and,  curiously  enough,  considering  the  general  opin- 
ion to  the  contrary,  "green."  There  is  no  doubt, 
whatever  the  exact  hue  may  be,  that  this  star  wears 
a  livery  distinguishing  it  from  any  other  in  the  sky. 
It  is  hardly  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  there  is 
as  great  a  variety  of  color  tones  among  stars  as 
among  flowers.  Although  the  great  majority  of  stars 
approximate  to  white,  there  are,  nevertheless,  red 
stars,  green  stars,  blue  stars,  lilac  stars,  yellow  stars, 
orange  stars,  indigo  stars,  and  violet  stars,  and  stars 
of  other  tints  and  shades.  All  of  those  which  are 
deeply  colored  are  linked  together  in  close  pairs,  but 
the  colors  they  exhibit  are  not  an  effect  of  contrast. 
It  is  wonderful  to  think  of  suns  of  such  hues,  but 
there  they  are!  And,  after  all,  it  would  be  no  more 
difficult  to  account  for  the  colors  of  stars  than  for 
those  of  flowers.  But  to  live  under  a  purple  or  an 
emerald  sun  might  not  be  as  agreeable  as  life  in  the 

89 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

rays  of  our  white  orb,  whose  light  splits  into  rain- 
bows, as  light  of  a  single  primary  color  could  not  do. 
A  flower-garden  under  a  green  sun  would  not  be  the 
marvel  of  prismatic  hues  that  it  is  in  our  world.1 

Cassiopeia  is  memorable  for  being  the  scene  of  one 
of  the  greatest  astronomical  occurrences  on  record. 
Near  the  star  Kappa  (*),  in  1572,  appeared  the  most 
splendid  new  star  that  has  ever  been  seen.  It  is 
known  as  "Tycho's  Star,"  the  Danish  astronomer 
Tycho  Brahe  having  been  an  assiduous  student  of 
the  wonderful  phenomenon  during  the  sixteen  months 
that  it  remained  visible.  There  is  a  red  variable  star 
of  less  than  the  tenth  magnitude  quite  close  to  the 
spot  where  Tycho  recorded  the  appearance  of  his 
nova,  and  it  has  been  thought  that  this  may  be  the 
mysterious  object  itself.  In  1901  a  new  star,  almost 
equal  in  brilliance  to  Tycho's,  suddenly  burst  out  in 
Perseus,  between  Algol  and  Algenib,  and  these  two 
so  similar  phenomena  occurring  in  the  same  quarter 

1  The  reader  who  is  curious  concerning  such  matters  is  advised 
to  consult  a  paper  by  Dr.  Louis  Bell  on  "Star  Colors,"  in  the 
Astrophysical  Journal  (vol.  xxi,  No.  3,  April,  1910).  Dr.  Bell's 
experiments  with  artificial  stars  seem  to  show  that  physiological 
effects  play  a  great  part  in  producing  the  pronounced  colors  of  the 
small  stars  in  many  telescopic  doubles.  The  paper  is  very  inter- 
esting, especially  in  its  description  of  a  startling  imitation  of  the 
singular  cluster,  Kappa  (K)  Crucis,  which  Sir  John  Herschel  de- 
scribed as  resembling  a  gorgeous  piece  of  colored  jewelry.  But, 
whatever  part  physiolDgical  optics  may  play  in  the  phenomena  of 
colored  doubles,  it  is  certain  that  many  single  stars,  including  some 
of  great  magnitude,  possess  distinctive  tints.  Compare,  for  in- 
stance, Castor  and  Pollux  or  Rigel  and  Betelgeuse.  Aldebaran 
and  Betelgeuse  are  both  reddish,  yet  the  color  tones  that  they 
exhibit  are  clearly  different. 

90 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE  AUTUMNAL  EQUINOX 

of  the  heavens  are  usually  linked  together  in  the 
discussion  of  new  stars.  The  reader  who  wishes 
more  particulars  about  these  stars  may  consult  Curi- 
osities of  the  Sky. 

The  background  of  the  sky  around  Cassiopeia  is  a 
magnificent  field  for  the  opera-glass  and  the  tele- 
scope. In  sweeping  over  it  one  is  reminded  of  Jean 
Paul  Richter's  Dream  of  the  Universe : 

"Thus  we  flew  on  through  the  starry  wildernesses;  one 
heaven  after  another  unfurled  its  immeasurable  banners  be- 
for$  us  and  then  rolled  up  behind  us;  galaxy  behind  galaxy 
towered  up  into  solemn  altitudes  before  which  the  spirit 
shuddered;  and  they  stood  in  long  array,  through  which 
the  Infinite  Beings  might  pass  in  progress.  Sometimes  the 
Form  that  lightened  would  outfly  my  weary  thoughts,  and 
then  it  would  be  seen  far  off  before  me  like  a  coruscation 
among  the  stars,  till  suddenly  I  thought  to  myself  the  thought 
of  'There,'  and  then  I  was  at  its  side.  But  as  we  were  thus 
swallowed  up  by  one  abyss  of  stars  after  another,  and  the 
heavens  above  our  eyes  were  not  emptier,  neither  were  the 
heavens  below  them  fuller;  and  as  suns  without  intermission 
fell  into  the  solar  ocean  like  waterspouts  of  a  storm  which 
fall  into  the  ocean  of  waters,  then  at  length  the  human 
heart  within  me  was  overburdened  and  weary,  and  yearned 
after  some  narrow  cell  or  quiet  oratory  in  this  metropolitan 
cathedral  of  the  universe.  And  I  said  to  the  Form  at  my 
side:  *O  Spirit!  has  then  this  universe  no  end?'  And  the 
Form  answered  and  said,  'Lo!  it  has  no  beginning!'" 

Westward  from  Cassiopeia,  directly  over  the  pole, 
and  lying  athwart  the  meridian,  is  the  constellation 
of  Cepheus,  the  King,  less  conspicuous  than  that 
of  his  queen,  Cassiopeia,  but  equally  ancient.  Its 
leading  star,  Alpha  (a),  also  called  Alderamin,  the 
7  9i 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

''Right  Arm,"  is  a  candidate  for  the  great  office  of 
Pole-star,  which  it  will  occupy  in  about  5500  years. 
Beta  ()3),  the  second  in  rank,  is  named  Alfirk,  the 
"Flock"  or  "Herd."  If  you  are  sweeping  here  with 
an  opera-glass  you  will  perceive,  about  half-way  be- 
tween Alpha  (a)  and  Zeta  (£) ,  a  small  star  which  will 
at  once  arrest  your  attention  by  its  color.  It  is  the 
celebrated  "Garnet  Star"  of  Sir  William  Herschel, 
who  was  greatly  impressed  by  its  brilliant  hue,  de- 
claring it  to  be  the  most  deeply  colored  star  that  the 
naked  eye  can  find  in  the  sky.  But  its  color  is  not 
so  striking  unless  a  glass  be  used. 

Low  down  in  the  north-northwest  we  see  the  Great 
Dipper,  above  it  the  coiling  form  and  diamond  head 
of  Draco,  and  then,  still  higher,  the  Northern  Cross 
and  Vega,  bright  as  a  jewel.  Hercules  and  the  North- 
ern Crown  are  near  setting  in  the  northwest. 


IV 

THE   EVENING  SKY   AT  THE   WINTER   SOLSTICE 

THE  magic  of  the  starry  heavens  does  not  fail 
with  the  decline  of  the  sun  in  winter,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  increases  in  power  when  the  curtains 
of  the  night  begin  to  close  so  early  that  by  six  o'clock 
the  twilight  is  gone  and  the  firmament  has  become 
a  dome  of  jet  ablaze  with  clusters  of  living  gems. 
And  when  the  snows  arrive,  mantling  the  hills  with 
glistening  ermine,  the  coruscating  splendor  of  the 
sky  seems  to  be  redoubled.  If  I  were  to  choose  a 
time  most  suitable  for  interesting  a  novice  in  the 
beauties  and  wonders  of  uranography,  I  would  select 
the  winter,  and  I  would  lead  my  acolyte,  on  a  clear, 
frosty  night,  when  the  landscape  was  glittering  with 
crusted  snow,  upon  some  eminence  where  the  curve 
of  the  horizon  was  broken  only  by  the  leafless  tops 
of  a  few  trees,  through  which  the  rising  stars  would 
flash  like  electric  lamps.  The  accord  between  the 
stars  and  the  seasons  is  never  more  evident  than  at 
such  a  time  and  in  such  a  place,  and  the  psychology 
of  the  stars  is  then  most  strongly  felt.  When  the 
earth  is  locked  fast  in  the  bonds  of  winter  the  spark- 
ling heavens  seem  most  alive.  I  would  have,  if  it 

93 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

were  possible,  a  clump  of  dark  pines  or  hemlocks  near 
the  place  of  observation,  throwing  their  shadows  on 
the  snow,  while  Sirius  in  all  its  wild  beauty  blazed 
above  them,  and  Aldebaran,  Rigel,  and  Betelgeuse 
filled  the  vibrant  air  about  them  with  jewelled  lances 
of  prismatic  light.  Then  the  sound  of  sleigh-bells  in 
the  resonant  atmosphere  would  seem  an  aerial  music 
shaken  from  the  scintillant  sky,  and  a  lurking  fox, 
stealing  from  his  den  in  the  edge  of  the  shadows, 
would  appear  timorously  conscious  of  the  splendor 
over  his  head.  The  nocturnal  animals  know  a  day 
more  glorious  than  ours,  but  it  is  never  so  glorious 
as  when  its  multi-colored  rays  splinter  upon  crystalled 
hills  at  the  winter  solstice. 

Now  the  greatest  of  the  constellations  reign  in  the 
sky.  Orion  is  high  up  in  the  southeast,  and  around 
him  are  arrayed  his  brilliant  attendants  and  com- 
panions— toward  the  west  Taurus,  with  Aldebaran  and 
the  glittering  Pleiades;  above,  Auriga  and  Gemini 
dipping  their  feet  in  the  Milky  Way;  in  the  east, 
Canis  Minor,  with  great,  steady  Procyon,  and  Canis 
Major  proclaiming  his  precedence  with  flaming  Sirius, 
the  King  of  the  Stars.  We  cannot  do  better  than 
begin  with  this  starry  monarch  and  his  constellation. 

To  me  Sirius  will  always  remain  associated  with 
the  memory  of  Christmas  sleigh-bells  and  the  thrill- 
ing creak  of  runners  on  crisp,  hard  snow,  for  it  was 
during  a  drive  home  from  a  "  Christmas-tree "  in  a 
country  church  that  I  first  made  the  acquaintance 
of  that  imperial  star.  It  seemed  to  me  more  brilliant- 

94 


CHART    IV THE    WINTER    EVENINQ 


EVENING  SKY   AT  THE    WINTER  SOLSTICE 

ly  beautiful  than  any  of  the  dazzling  gifts  that  had 
hung  so  magically  on  the  illuminated  tree.  Its 
splendor  is  unearthly,  putting  diamonds  and  sap- 
phires to  shame.  How  people  can  live  and  be  happy 
without  ever  gazing  at  such  an  object  surpasses  the 
understanding  of  any  one  who  has  once  beheld  and 
yielded  to  its  charm.  The  splendors  of  Aladdin's  Cave 
are  for  children,  and  fade  in  the  light  of  advancing 
life,  but  these  glories  of  the  universe  are  for  men  and 
women,  and  grow  brighter  with  the  years. 

The  renown  of  Sirius  is  as  ancient  as  the  human 
race.  There  has  never  been  a  time  or  a  people  in 
which  or  by  whom  it  was  not  worshipped,  reverenced, 
and  admired.  To  the  builders  of  the  Egyptian  tem- 
ples and  pyramids  it  was  an  object  as  familiar  as 
the  sun  itself.  Its  name  is  usually  regarded  as  being 
derived  from  the  Greek  SEI'/MOC,  the  "Bright  or  Shin- 
ing One,"  but  it  is  also  thought  that  it  may  be  con- 
nected with  Osiris.  The  familiar  title  of  the  "Dog 
Star"  comes  from  its  association  with  the  dies  cani- 
cular 102  of  the  Romans. 

"As  the  movable  Egyptian  year,"  says  George 
Cornewell  Lewis,  "was  held  to  have  originally  begun 
at  the  heliacal  rising  of  the  Dog  Star,  which  was  con- 
temporary with  the  ordinary  commencement  of  the 
inundation  of  the  Nile,  this  period  was,  by  late 
writers,  entitled  the  Canicular,  or  Sothiac,  period, 
So  this  being  the  Egyptian  name  for  the  Dog  Star." 

Norman  Lockyer  identifies  Sirius  with  the  goddess 
Isis,  or  Hathor,  who  was  personified  by  that  star, 

97 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

and  the  temple  of  Isis  at  Dendera  was,  he  avers, 
built  to  watch  it.  ''It  has  been  pointed  out,  times 
without  number,"  he  adds,  "that  the  inscriptions 
indicate  that  by  far  the  most  important  astronomical 
event  in  Egyptian  history  was  the  rising  of  the  star 
Sinus  at  this  precise  time." 

Sirius  has  sometimes  been  identified  with  the 
"Mazzaroth"  of  the  Book  of  Job. 

The  great  star  is  worthy  of  all  its  fame,  not  only 
by  its  magnificent  beauty,  but  by  the  revelations 
which  modern  science  has  afforded  us  concerning  it. 
While  not  comparable  in  actual  luminosity  with 
Rigel,  Canopus,  or  even  Arcturus,  it  immensely  out- 
shines the  best  of  them  to  our  eyes  because  of  its 
relative  nearness.  Its  distance  is  only  about  50,000,- 
000,000,000  miles  (parallax  o".37),  so  that  it  is  really 
one  of  the  nearest  stars  in  the  sky.  Light  requires 
about  nine  years  to  come  to  us  from  Sirius.  Out- 
shining the  sun  at  least  thirty  times,  it  is  so  bright, 
even  at  that  distance,  that  a  special  rank  has  been 
given  to  it  in  stellar  photometry.  Formerly  all  very 
bright  stars  were  ranked  as  of  the  first  magnitude, 
but  greater  exactness  is  now  employed,  the  naked- 
eye  stars  being  divided  among  eight  magnitudes, 
running  from  6  up  to  —  i.  Thus  the  faintest  star 
visible  to  the  naked  eye  is  of  magnitude  6;  a  star 
2.51  times  brighter  is  of  magnitude  5;  a  star  2.51 
times  brighter  than  that  is  of  magnitude  4,  and  so  on 
up  to  magnitude  i.  A  star  2.51  times  brighter  than 
magnitude  i  is  of  magnitude  o;  and  one  2.51  times 

98 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE   WINTER  SOLSTICE 

brighter  than  the  o  magnitude  is  of  magnitude  —  i, 
a  degree  of  brilliance  which  is  attained  by  Sirius 
alone.  In  fact,  Sirius  exceeds  magnitude  —  r,  its  real 
rank  being  —1.6.  On  the  same  scale  the  magnitude 
of  the  sun  would  be  —26.3.  The  standard  first  mag- 
nitude s  usually  taken  as  being  represented  by  the 
star  Altair,  although  that  star  is  not  exactly  of  that 
magnitude.  As  a  ready  rule  it  may  be  said  that 
each  magnitude  is  two  and  a  half  times  brighter  than 
the  next  below  it,  and  a  difference  of  six  magnitudes 
corresponds  to  an  increase  of  one  hundred  times  in 
brilliance.  Sirius  is  about  ten  times  as  bright  as 
Altair.  While,  if  seen  from  the  same  distance,  Sirius 
would  appear  at  least  thirty  times  as  bright  as  the 
sun,  at  our  actual  distance  from  both  the  light 
received  from  the  sun  is  to  that  received  from  Sirius 
in  the  ratio  of  about  7,000,000,000  to  i.  While  by  no 
means  the  largest  sun  in  the  universe,  Sirius  is  the 
largest  sun  in  our  part  of  space,  and  some  indications 
have  been  detected  that  it  may,  to  a  certain  extent, 
control  the  motion  of  the  solar  system.  In  other 
words,  our  sun  and  some  of  the  nearer  stars  appear 
to  form  a  group,  or  family,  of  which  Sirius  is  probably 
the  chief. 

Sirius  is  an  intensely  white  star,  but  its  whiteness 
is  shot  with  a  tint  of  blue  or  green.  It  has  not  the 
purity  of  light  of  Spica.  Owing  also  to  its  great 
brilliance,  it  twinkles  incessantly,  darting,  in  an  un- 
steady atmosphere,  rays  of  all  the  colors  of  the  rain- 
bow. The  spectroscope  shows  that  it  is  a  sun  at  an 

99 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

earlier  stage  of  development  than  ours.  It  is  also  a 
binary.  A  very  massive  companion,  singularly  faint 
for  its  size,  revolves  round  it  in  a  period  of  about 
fifty- three  years.  At  present  the  distance  between 
these  stars  is  more  than  6".  The  small  star  is  more 
than  half  as  massive  as  Sirius,  but  ten  thousand  times 
less  brilliant — one  would  say  a  dying  sun  linked  by 
gravitation  with  another  in  the  heyday  of  its  life 
and  splendor. 

The  constellation  Canis  Major,  of  which  Sirius  is 
the  leader,  is  very  striking  in  outline  when  well 
above  the  horizon.  Some  six  degrees  west  of  Sirius 
is  seen  the  second  star  of  the  constellation,  Beta  (]3), 
or  Murzim  (Arabic  Al  Murzim,  the  "Announcer"),  ^ 
a  name  which  Ideler  says  originated  in  the  fact  that 
this  star  rises  ahead  of  Sirius,  and  thus  appears  to 
announce  its  coming.  The  remainder  of  the  con- 
stellation should  be  viewed  an  hour  or  two  later  than 
that  for  which  Chart  IV  is  drawn,  or  a  month  later 
in  the  season,  when  it  is  farther  from  the  horizon. 
It  represents  the  hind-quarters  of  the  imaginary  dog. 
The  star  Epsilon  (c) ,  or  Adhara,  perhaps  the  bright- 
est in  the  group,  is  a  double;  colors  orange  and 
violet;  distance  7 ".5.  The  smaller  star  is  of  only 
the  ninth  magnitude.  Delta  (S)  is  called  Wezen,  the 
"Weight,"  because  "the  star  seems  to  rise  with 
difficulty  from  the  horizon,"  an  excellent  instance  of 
the  fanciful  titles  which  the  Arabs  and  others  often 
gave  to  stars.  Zeta  (£)  is  Furud,  and  Eta  (»j)  Aludra.  .-• 
The  meaning  of  these  names  is  uncertain.  Allen  says 

100 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE   WINTER  SOLSTICE 

that  the  Arabs  called  Epsilon,  Delta,  Eta,  and  Omi- 
cron  (o)  "The  Virgins."  But  they  had  other  names 
for  them  suggested  by  fancied 
rose  sparkling  from  the  desert;, 
From  Canis  Major  the  eye  ri 
glorious  of  all  constellations: 

"  Whoso  kens  not  him  in  cloudless  night 
Gleaming  aloft,  shall  cast  his  eyes  in  vain 
To  find  a  brighter  sign  in  all  the  heaven." 

Brown,  in  his  Primitive  Constellations,  undertakes 
to  derive  the  name  from  the  Akkadian  Uru-anna,  the 
"Light  of  Heaven."  Whatever  its  origin,  it  is  cer- 
tainly very  ancient.  For  some  thousands  of  years  it 
has  been  associated  with  a  traditional  giant  who 
looms  in  the  background  of  Greek  mythology.  In 
the  classical  atlases  of  the  heavens  Orion  is  represented 
as  standing  in  an  attitude  of  defiance,  facing  west- 
ward, brandishing  a  huge  club  above  his  head,  and 
lifting  his  left  arm,  covered  with  a  lion's  hide,  to 
meet  the  charge  of  Taurus,  the  "Bull."  And  under 
some  such  guise  all  mankind  has  seen  him  for  un- 
told ages — always  a  gigantic  figure,  always  heroic  in 
character,  always  defying  or  pursuing — the  symbol 
of  strength,  courage,  conquest,  and  victory.  The 
same  idea  underlies  every  representation  of  this  con- 
stellation; whether  it  be  the  mythical  "Giant"  of  the 
East,  or  "Nimrod"  or  "Joshua"  or  the  "Armed 
King"  or  the  "Warrior"  or  the  "Hunter,"  it  is  in- 
variably the  figure  of  a  doer  of  great  deeds  which  is 
presented  to  the  imagination.  And  it  must  be  said 

101 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

that  the  aspect  of  the  constellation  is  in  accord  with 
such  thoughts.  No  one  can  look  at  it  without  a 
stirring  of  \ttre.  jbfoocL  It  has  something  of  the  effect 
of  a  great  battle-piece,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that 
J^^^o^^ye^i^v^edJin  France  to  connect  it  with 
the  name  of  Napoleon.  Although  its  two  chief  stars 
are  separated  some  eighteen  degrees,  and  the  central 
"Belt"  forms  a  striking  figure  by  itself,  yet  there  is 
an  unmistakable  unity  about  the  constellation,  and 
one  would  hardly  think  of  dividing  it  into  separate 
groups.  Singularly  enough,  this  sense  of  oneness  is 
borne  out  by  the  photographic  discovery  that  a  vast 
swirl  of  nebulous  matter  surrounds  the  entire  con- 
stellation, and  by  the  spectroscopic  proof  that  nearly 
all  of  its  stars  belong  to  one  type,  which  has  become 
known  as  the  " Orion  type." 

Perhaps  the  first  feature  of  Orion  that  strikes  the 
eye  is  the  arrangement  of  the  three  nearly  equal 
bright  stars  which  form  the  Belt.  Their  Greek-let- 
ter names  are  Delta,  Epsilon,  and  Zeta,  and  by  these 
they  are  usually  designated,  but  there  is  a  great  charm 
in  their  Arabic  titles,  which,  in  the  same  order,  are 
Mintaka,  "Belt";  Alnilam  (from  "String  of  Pearls")  ; 
and  Alnitah,  "Girdle."  It  will  be  observed  that  all 
of  these  names  have  a  similar  signification,  and  prob- 
ably each  of  them  was  originally  employed  to  desig- 
nate the  whole  row.1 

1  It  should  be  said  that  throughout  this  book  I  am  indebted  for 
many  of  the  translations  of  star  names  to  Richard  Hinckley  Allen's 
Star  Names  and  Their  Meanings,  the  most  complete  work  of  its 
kind  in  existence. 

102 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE   WINTER  SOLSTICE 

The  Belt  is  remarkable  in  another  way — it  points 
very  nearly  toward  Sirius ;  it  is  like  a  glittering  sign- 
board indicating  the  position  of  the  brightest  star  in 
the  sky.  To  hasty  observation  the  row  seems  to 
be  perfectly  straight,  although  there  is  in  reality  a 
slight  bend,  and  the  distances  separating  the  three 
stars  appear  to  be  exactly  equal.  The  effect  is  as 
beautiful  as  it  is  surprising. 

Below  the  Belt  hangs  a  fainter  row  of  stars  con- 
stituting the  "Sword."  The  central  star  of  this  row, 
Theta  (0),  arrests  the  attention  at  once  by  a  curious 
appearance  of  nebulosity,  especially  if  it  is  examined 
with  an  opera-glass.  A  telescope  shows  it  to  be  en- 
veloped in  one  of  the  grandest  nebulas  in  the  sky, 
the  celebrated  "Great  Nebula  of  Orion."  With  a 
large  glass  its  appearance  is  astonishing  in  the  highest 
degree.  Instead  of  being  elongated  like  the  great 
nebula  in  Andromeda,  it  is  about  as  broad  as  long, 
with  no  single  centre  of  condensation,  but  many 
curdled  accumulations,  interspersed  with  partial  gaps, 
and  a  great  variety  of  curved  lines  of  brighter  nebu- 
losity, suggesting  the  misty  skeleton  of  some  nonde- 
script monster  impact  of  phosphorescent  clouds.  A 
large  number  of  stars  are  scattered  over  or  through 
it,  and  some  of  them  seem  clearly  to  be  connected 
with  it,  as  if  created  out  of  its  substance.  Unlike 
the  Andromeda  nebula,  this  shows  only  the  spectrum 
of  glowing  gas,  so  that  no  such  supposition  as  has 
been  made  in  the  other  case — viz.,  that  it  may  be  an 
outside  universe — is  admissible  here.  It  is  rather  a 

103 


ROUND    THE     YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

chaos,  rich  with  the  elements  from  whose  combina- 
tions spring  suns  and  planets,  and  where  the  effects 
of  organizing  forces  are  just  beginning  to  become 
manifest.  It  resembles  a  vast  everglade  filled  with 
tangled  vegetation  and  uncouth  growths,  but  where 
the  fertile  soil,  once  cleared  and  drained,  is  capable 
of  producing  an  enormous  harvest. 

On  either  side  of  the  Belt,  but  far  removed  from  it, 
shine  the  two  great  stars  of  Orion,  Alpha  (a) ,  or  Betel- 

-f  geuse  (from  an  Arabic  phrase  meaning  the  "Arm- 
pit of  the  Central  One"),  and  Beta  (/3),  or  Rigel  (from 
an  Arabic  phrase  meaning  the  "Leg  of  the  Giant"). 
These  stars  differ  remarkably  in  color,  Betelgeuse 
being  orange-hued,  and  Rigel  white.  Although  Betel- 
geuse takes  precedence  in  the  Greek-letter  ranking, 
it  is  variable  in  brightness,  sometimes  exceeding 
Rigel  in  brilliance,  and  sometimes  falling  below  it. 
The  changes  are  uncertain  in  a  long  and  as  yet  un- 
ascertained period.  There  is  here  an  opportunity 
for  an  amateur  to  make  valuable  observations.  But 
such  observations  must  be  continued  over  a  consider- 
able period  of  years. 

Both  stars  are  of  immense  actual  magnitude.  Their 
distance  is  so  great  that  no  trustworthy  estimate  of 
their  parallax  has  yet  been  made.  Rigel  was  put 
by  Newcomb  in  his  "XM"  class,  to  which  we  have 
several  times  referred.  It  is  without  doubt  one  of 

^  the  mightiest  suns  in  the  universe.  It  is  also  a 
double,  and  one  of  the  finest  in  the  sky.  Close  to  its 
flaming  rays  the  telescope  reveals  a  small,  intensely 

104 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE   WINTER  SOLSTICE 

blue  star.  The  distance  is  about  9".  5.  In  its  gen- 
eral aspect  Rigel  resembles  Vega,  but  the  latter  has 
a  more  decided  blue  tint.  Scientific  photometry  gives 
the  precedence  in  brightness  to  Vega,  which  is  ranked 
as  of  magnitude  o.i,  while  Rigel  is  0.3,  which  means 
that  the  first  is  one-tenth,  and  the  second  three- 
tenths  of  a  magnitude  below  the  o  rank.  It  is  very 
interesting  to  bring  Rigel  and  Betelgeuse  close  to- 
gether with  a  good  sextant  and  then  note  the  differ- 
ence in  their  color. 

The  star  Gamma  (7),  or  Bellatrix,  the  " Amazon" 
or  "Female  Warrior,"  marks  the  left  shoulder  of  the 
imaginary  giant.  Astrological  superstition  connects 
this  star  with  the  fortunes  of  women.  Kappa  (K),  or 
Saiph,  "Sword"  (although  it  is  far  from  the  Sword), 
is  in  the  right  knee  of  the  figure.  The  head  is  marked 
by  a  little  triangular  group  of  stars,  the  chief  of  which 
is  Lambda  (A),  a  fine  double,  yellow  and  purplish; 
distance  4". 5.  The  "lion's  hide"  which  Orion  is 
represented  as  carrying  on  his  left  arm  like  a  shield 
is  shown  by  a  bending  row  of  small  stars,  beginning 
with  Pi  (?r)  and  running  upward  between  Bellatrix 
and  Aldebaran  in  Taurus .  The  reader  who  is  not  pro- 
vided with  a  telescope  is  advised,  at  least,  to  employ 
an  opera-glass  in  sweeping  over  the  whole  space  in- 
cluded in  Orion.  It  is  a  region  superb  in  its  beauty 
and  grandeur.  Around  the  Belt,  particularly,  the  sky 
is  filled  with  sparkling  multitudes  infinitely  varied 
in  size,  color,  and  grouping.  As  already  said,  this 
part  of  the  firmament  contains  an  enormous  spiral 

105 


ROUND    THE     YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

nebula,  which,  although  it  can  only  be  seen  in  pho- 
tographs, seems  to  manifest  its  presence  to  the  eye 
by  the  significant  arrangement  of  small  stars  in  curv- 
ing lines.  A  word  should  be  added  about  the  star 
Zeta,  or  Alnitah,  at  the  southeastern  end  of  the  Belt. 
It  is  a  triple,  very  remarkable  for  the  indescribable 
color  of  its  second  largest  component.  The  Russian 
astronomer  Struve  could  find  nothing  exactly  re- 
sembling it  in  tone  in  the  whole  gamut  of  spectral 
colors,  and  he  invented  a  special  name  to  describe  it 
— olivacea  -  sub  -  rubicunda,  which  may  be  translated 
" ruddy-olive."  It  is  2 ".5  from  its  larger  companion. 
The  third  star  is  very  faint,  and  distant  56".  When 
the  telescope  is  directed  to  the  star  Sigma  (<r)  there 
comes  into  view  an  astonishing  double  group  of  stars, 
among  which  such  colors  as  pale  blue,  " grape-red," 
ruddy,  and  "gray"  have  been  detected.  The  effect 
upon  the  mind  of  seeing  such  combinations  of  tinted 
suns  transcends  all  power  of  description.  With  the 
feeling  of  pleasure  that  they  give  goes  a  sense  of  stag- 
gering wonder. 

West  of  Orion,  beginning  near  Rigel,  is  seen  the 
constellation  Eridanus,  the  River  Po.  Its  stars  are 
interesting  for  their  plainly  streaming  tendency 
rather  than  for  their  individual  peculiarities.  Rising 
slightly  from  the  neighborhood  of  Rigel,  the  stream 
runs  in  a  graceful  curve  under  Taurus,  and  continues 
westward  until  it  meets  Get  us,  where  it  turns  down- 
ward toward  the  horizon,  and  then  sweeps  back  east- 
ward again,  disappearing  behind  the  southern  horizon 

106 


EVENING   SKY   AT   THE    WINTER   SOLSTICE 

below  Orion  and  Lepus.  It  has  no  large  star  visible 
in  northern  latitudes,  but  in  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere it  contains  one  of  the  brightest  stars  in  the  sky, 
Achernar,  the  "End  of  the  River."  All  of  the  an- 
cients saw  a  river  in  this  part  of  the  sky,  a  fact  which 
does  not  surprise  the  observer  when  he  has  once 
noted  the  arrangement  of  the  stars  of  Eridanus.  Its 
stars  are  so  numerous  that  the  old  uranographers 
seem  to  have  grown  weary  of  attaching  letters  to 
them ;  or  rather,  perhaps,  the  alphabet  was  too  short 
to  answer  the  demand,  for  no  less  than  nine  of  them, 
beginning  from  the  one  thus  lettered  in  Chart  V,  are 
called  Tau  (r),  as  r1,  r2,  r3,  etc.  (For  the  origin  of 
the  association  of  Eridanus  with  the  River  Po,  and 
with  the  story  of  Phaeton,  see  Astronomy  with  the 
Naked  Eye}. 

The  constellation  Lepus,  the  Hare,  below  Orion,  x 
and  marking  the  place  where  Eridanus  turns  finally 
to  flow  into  the  far  south,  is  noteworthy  only  for  its 
groupings  of  stars.  It  contains  one  star  too  faint  to 
be  seen  with  the  naked  eye  near  the  western  border 
of  the  constellation,  below  and  to  the  right  of  the  lit- 
tle group  under  Rigel,  in  Chart  V,  which  is  so  in- 
tensely crimson  that  Hind  likened  its  appearance 
to  a  blood  drop. 

We  turn  next  to  Taurus.     On  account  of  the  beauty 
of  Aldebaran   and   the   Pleiades,    this   constellation 
hardly  falls  behind  Orion  in   attractiveness.     Alde- 
baran (Arabic  Al  Dabaran,  the  "Follower")   is  the    * 
chief  star  of  the  constellation  and  the  leader  of  the 

107 


ROUND    THE    YEAR     WITH    THE    STARS 

group  called  the  Hyades,  a  name  which  Lewis  derives 
'*'  from  the  Greek  word  VEIV,  to  rain,  because  their  ris- 
ing was  connected  with  the  beginning  of  the  rainy 
season.  Popularly  the  group  is  known  as  the  "Let- 
ter A,"  whose  form  it  imitates,  although  it  is  usually 
seen  nearly  upside  down.  The  letter  V  would  per- 
haps better  represent  our  view  of  it.  It  is  a  glorious 
sight  with  an  opera-glass.  Aldebaran  is  distinctly 
red,  but  of  a  peculiar  tone,  which  has  frequently  been 
called  rose-red.  Its  redness  is  certainly  unlike  the 
orange  tone  of  Betelgeuse.  When  gazing  at  it  in  a 
fanciful  mood,  I  have  often  likened  it  imaginatively 
to  an  apple-blossom  in  color.  Flammarion  has  trans- 
lated the  Hebrew  name  of  this  star,  Aleph,  as  " God's 
Eye."  Taurus,  he  says,  is  the  most  ancient  of  the 
signs  of  the  zodiac,  the  first  that  the  Precession  of 
the  Equinoxes  placed  at  the  head  of  the  signs,  and 
he  adds  that  observational  astronomy  appears  to 
have  been  founded  at  the  epoch  when  the  Vernal 
Equinox  lay  close  to  Aldebaran  —  i.e.,  about  three 
f  thousand  years  before  the  commencement  of  our  era. 
The  beauty  of  Aldebaran,  the  singularity  of  the 
figure  shaped  by  its  attendants,  the  charming  effect 
produced  by  the  flocks  of  little  stars,  the  Deltas  and 
the  Thetas,  in  the  middle  of  the  arms  of  the  letter, 
and  the  richness  of  the  stellar  groundwork  of  the 
cluster,  all  combine  to  make  the  Hyades  one  of  the 
most  memorable  objects  in  the  sky;  but  no  one  can 
describe  it,  because  the  starry  heavens  cannot  be  put 
into  words.  Terrestrial  analogies,  and  phrases  ap- 

108 


EVENING   SKY   AT   THE   WINTER   SOLSTICE 

plied  to  things  seen  on  the  earth,  utterly  fail  to  con- 
vey the  impressions  made  by  such  spectacles.  I  can 
only  again  urge  the  reader  to  examine  the  Hyades  with 
a  good  opera-glass  on  a  clear  night  when  there  is  no 
moonlight  to  interfere.  Some  one  once  said,  "If  you 
would  test  your  appreciation  of  poetry,  read  Milton's 
Lycidas";  so  I  would  say,  If  you  would  know  how 
you  are  affected  by  nature's  masterpieces  in  the  sky, 
look  at  the  Hyades. 

The  stars  Theta  (0)  and  Sigma  (<r)  are  both  naked- 
eye  doubles  for  sharp  eyes.  Try  if  you  can  see  both 
of  the  pairs. 

The  Hyades  represent  the  head  of  the  imaginary 
bull,  Aldebaran  standing  for  the  eye,  while  rows  of 
stars  running  up  toward  Zeta  (?)  and  Beta  (j3)  figure 
the  "golden  horns."  The  Pleiades,  the  "Atlantic! 
Nymphs,"  hang  on  the  shoulder.  They  form  a  much 
more  compact  group  than  the  Hyades,  and  possess 
no  large  star,  their  chief  brilliant,  Alcyone — Eta(»j) — 
being  only  of  the  third  magnitude.  But  the  effect 
of  their  combination  is  very  striking  and  beautiful. 
In  looking  at  them  one  can  never  refrain  from  quot- 
ing Tennyson's  famous  lines  in  which  they  are  de- 
scribed as  glittering  "like  a  swarm  of  fireflies  tangled 
in  a  silver  braid."  The  adjective  silvery  exactly 
describes  them.  If  you  happen  to  glance  at  the  sky 
at  a  point  many  degrees  away  from  the  place  where 
they  shine,  your  eye  will  inevitably  be  drawn  to  them. 
They  have  greater  attractive  power  than  a  single 
large  star,  and  the  effect  of  their  intermingled  rays 
8  109 


UNIVERSITY  ©F 

OF  CIVIL  ENGINEER^ 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

is  truly  fascinating.  With  an  opera-glass  they  look 
like  the  glimmering  candles  on  a  Christmas-tree. 
Their  mythological  history  and  the  many  strange  tra- 
ditions pertaining  to  them  I  have  described  elsewhere, 
and  shall  not  repeat  here;  but  it  should  be  said  that 
there  is  not  in  all  the  sky  any  object  comparable  with 
the  Pleiades  in  influence  over  the  human  imagination. 
The  fancy  of  Maedler  that  Alcyone  was  the  central 
sun  of  the  universe,  and  the  inference,  so  popular  at 
one  time,  that  it  might  be  the  very  seat  of  the  Al- 
mighty, have  vanished  in  the  limbo  of  baseless  tradi- 
tions ;  but  the  mystic  charm  of  the  Pleiades  has  been 
increased  by  the  photographic  discovery  that  they  are 
involved  in  a  wonderful  mass  of  tangled  nebulas. 
Their  distance  is  unknown,  but  evidently  very  great, 
some  having  put  it  at  250  light-years,  corresponding 
to  about  1,450,000,000,000,000  miles!  If  this  is  cor- 
rect, Alcyone  may  be  really  one  of  the  most  gigantic 
suns  in  the  universe.  They  appear  to  be  travelling 
together  like  a  flock  of  birds. 

It  is  always  an  interesting  question  how  many 
stars  in  the  cluster  can  be  seen  with  the  naked  eye. 
Many  persons  can  detect  only  six,  but  better,  or  more 
trained,  eyes  see  seven,  or  even  nine.  The  telescope 
and  photography  reveal  thousands  thickly  sprinkled 
over  the  space  of  sky  that  they  occupy,  or  immediately 
around  them.  How  many  of  these  are  actually  con- 
nected with  the  group  is  unknown.  One  of  the  most 
persistent  legends  of  antiquity  is  that  of  the  "Lost 
Pleiad."  Says  Miss  Clerke,  in  her  System  of  the  Stars: 

no 


EVENING   SKY   AT  THE   WINTER  SOLSTICE 

"That  they  'were  seven  who  now  are  six'  is  asserted  by 
almost  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  from  Japan  to  Nigritia, 
and  variants  of  the  classical  story  of  the  '  Lost  Pleiad '  are 
still  repeated  by  sable  legend-mongers  in  Victoria,  by  head- 
hunters  in  Borneo,  by  fetish  worshippers  amid  the  mangrove 
swamps  of  the  Gold  Coast.  An  impression  thus  widely 
diffused  must  either  have  spread  from  a  common  source  or 
originated  in  an  obvious  fact ;  and  it  is  at  least  possible  that 
the  veiled  face  of  the  seventh  Atlantid  may  typify  a  real 
loss  of  light  in  a  prehistorically  conspicuous  star." 

The  name  Pleiades  is  derived  from  the  Greek  ir\eiv, 
to  sail,  because  their  heliacal  rising  occurred  at  the 
time  when  navigation  opened  in  the  seas  of  Greece, 
and  their  heliacal  setting  at  the  time  of  its  close. 

"...  Rude  winter  comes 
Just  when  the  Pleiades  begin  to  set." 

But  their  religious  significance  seems  always  to 
have  exceeded  their  practical  importance  as  a  sign 
of  the  seasons,  and  from  the  temples  on  the  Acropolis 
of  Athens  to  the  sanctuaries  of  Mexico,  Yucatan,  and 
Peru  they  were  regarded  with  reverence  and  awe. 
Modern  popular  fancies  have  been  less  reverential, 
and  Alcyone  and  her  attendants  have  been  degraded 
to  the  figure  of  a  "hen  and  her  chickens."  Our  red- 
skinned  predecessors  on  this  continent  were  more 
poetical,  for  they  saw  in  the  Pleiades  a  group  of  lost 
children,  and  in  old  China  they  were  starry  sisters 
busy  with  their  needlework. 

High  overhead,  above  Orion  and  Taurus,  gleams 
Capella,  the  chief  star  of  the  constellation  Auriga, 

in 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

the  "Charioteer."  This  is  also  a  white  star,  but  no 
correct  eye  would  confuse  it  with  Rigel  or  Vega.  It 
has  none  of  the  sapphire  tint  that  is  mingled  in  their 
rays,  but  is  rather  of  the  whiteness  of  cream.  It  is 
a  very  great  star,  not  only  in  its  apparent  brilliance, 
but  in  actual  luminosity.  With  a  parallax  of  0^.09, 
Newcomb  calculated  its  luminosity  at  one  hundred 
and  twenty  times  that  of  the  sun.  It  is  a  spectro- 
scopic  binary,  the  invisible  companion  revolving 
round  it  in  a  period  of  one  hundred  and  four  days. 
In  spectroscopic  character  it  closely  resembles  the 
sun,  being  in  the  same  stage  of  development.  Vogel's 
observations  indicate  that  it  is  flying  away  from  us 
at  a  speed  of  more  than  a  million  and  a  quarter  miles 
per  day;  but,  in  contradiction  to  this,  some  have 
thought  that  it  is  increasing  in  brightness.  A  little 
elongated  triangle  of  stars  below  and  somewhat  to 
the  west  of  Capella  serves  to  render  its  recognition 
certain  to  the  beginner  in  star-gazing.  In  the  even- 
ings of  early  November,  when  one  is  in  the  north- 
east and  the  other  in  the  northwest,  it  is  interesting 
to  compare  Capella  with  Vega,  both  in  brightness 
and  in  co'or.  In  late  January  evenings  Capella  is 
near  the  zenith  for  the  middle  latitudes  of  the  United 
States,  and  at  such  times  is  a  superb  object.  The 
Milky  Way  pouring  through  Auriga  increases  the 
beauty  of  the  spectacle. 

The  second  star  of  Auriga,  Beta  (j3) ,  or  Menkalina, 
the  " Shoulder,"  is  also  a  spectroscopic  binary  with 
a  period  of  only  four  days.  It  was  the  first  binary 

112 


EVENING  SKY  AT  THE   WINTER  SOLSTICE 

of  this  class  to  be  discovered.  In  1889  Pickering 
found  that  its  spectral  lines  were  doubled  every  two 
days,  from  which  he  inferred  the  duplicate  character 
of  the  star  and  calculated  the  period  of  revolution 
of  its  components. 

Farther  east  we  see  Gemini,  the  "Twins."  It  is 
a  very  beautiful  constellation,  independently  of  the 
brightness  of  its  leaders,  Castor  and  Pollux,  or  Alpha 
(a)  and  Beta  ()3).  The  feet  of  the  imaginary  twins 
are  dipped  in  the  Milky  Way  nearly  above  the  up- 
lifted club  of  the  giant  Orion,  and  close  to  the  summer 
solstice.  The  successive  belts  of  stars  crossing  the 
figures  of  the  Twins  present  an  attractive  appear- 
ance. Castor,  although  the  literal  leader  of  the  con- 
stellation, is  not  now  as  bright  as  its  neighbor,  Pollux. 
A  change  of  brightness  must  have  taken  place. 
Castor  is  a  celebrated  binary  with  a  period  of  about 
one  thousand  years.  The  distance  between  the  two 
stars  composing  it  is  about  5".  5,  and,  both  being 
bright,  they  can  be  separated  with  small  telescopes. 

Pollux  is  very  near  the  standard  first  magnitude 
in  brightness.  It  has  a  slightly  orange  tint  in  con- 
trast with  the  whiteness  of  Castor.  Like  Orion, 
Taurus,  and  Auriga,  Gemini  offers  splendid  fields  of 
stars  for  the  opera-glass.  A  cluster,  M35,  not  far 
above  the  place  of  the  summer  solstice,  is  an  object 
of  rare  beauty  when  seen  with  a  low  telescopic  power. 

South  of  Gemini  shines  the  bright  star  Procyon 
in  Canis  Minor,  the  Lesser  Dog.  This  star,  whose 
name  implies  the  "Preceder,  or  Announcer,  of  the 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

Dog,"  because  it  rises  a  little  ahead  of  Sirius,  is  the 
only  bright  star  of  its  constellation.  It  is  interest- 
ing for  having  a  dusky  companion  whose  existence 
was  detected  by  the  effects  of  its  attraction  before 
any  telescope  had  revealed  it.  With  this  companion 
Procyon  forms  a  binary  system  with  a  period  of 
revolution  of  about  forty  years.  The  star  Beta  (/3) 
V  is  named  Gomeisa,  from  an  Arabic  word  meaning  the 
"Dim  One."  Procyon,  Sirius,  and  Betelgeuse  form 
a  magnificent  triangle,  through  which  flows  the 
Milky  Way. 

We  now  return  to  the  western  part  of  the  sky, 
where  we  see,  beyond  Eridanus,  the  vast  expanse 
covered  by  the  constellation  Cetus,  the  "Whale." 
The  head  lies  on  and  over  the  equator  above  the 
western  bend  of  Eridanus.  It  is  marked  by  a  strik- 
ing group  of  stars,  of  which  Alpha  (a),  or  Menkar, 
the  "Nose,"  is  the  chief.  The  star  Gamma  (7)  is  a 
fine  double;  colors  yellow  and  blue;  distance  2".$. 
Below  and  toward  the  west  will  be  found  Omicron  (o) , 
better  known  by  its  popular  title  of  Mira,  the ' '  Wonder- 
ful." In  some  respects  this  is  the  most  extraordinary 
of  all  variable  stars.  It  excited  great  astonishment 
when  its  variations  were  first  recorded  in  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Most  of  the  time  it  is  entirely  in- 
visible to  the  naked  eye;  but  once  in  about  ten 
months  it  begins  to  brighten,  and  in  a  few  weeks 
becomes  conspicuous,  sometimes  equalling  the  second 
magnitude  in  brightness.  Then  it  fades  again,  and 
in  about  three  months  disappears  from  naked-eye 

114 


EVENING   SKY   AT  THE   WINTER   SOLSTICE 

vision,  although  it  is  never  lost  to  the  telescope, 
which  follows  it  down  to  the  ninth  magnitude,  at 
which  it  remains,  glowing  redly,  for  several  succes- 
sive months.  Its  variations  are  more  or  less  irregular 
both  in  period  and  in  brightness.  The  causes  are 
only  conjectural.  About  all  that  we  can  say  is  that 
here  is  a  sun  which  once  every  ten  months  blazes  up 
to  a  thousand  or  fifteen  hundred  times  its  ordinary 
brilliancy.  The  imagination  can  work  its  will  with 
such  a  star  as  that. 

The  western  part  of  Cetus  is  marked  by  a  striking 
group  of  stars  shaped  something  like  the  bowl  of  an 
upturned  dipper  and  by  a  lone,  bright  star  still 
farther  west,  Beta  (]3),  or  Deneb  Kaitos,  the  "Tail  of 
the  Whale." 

Above  Cetus  runs  the  long  line  of  stars  composing 
the  constellation  Pisces,  now  the  leader  of  the  zodiac, 
since  it  contains  the  Vernal  Equinox.  Alpha  (a),  or 
Al  Rischa,  the  ''Cord,"  because  it  marks  the  ribbon 
imagined  to  bind  two  fishes  together  by  their  tails,  is 
directly  under  the  stars  marking  the  head  of  Aries, 
to  which  we  have  already  referred.  It  is  a  double 
of  very  singular  colors — green  and  blue.  The  dis- 
tance is  about  3' '.6.  From  Al  Rischa  the  stars  of  the 
constellation  stream  northward  to  the  figure  of  the 
Northern  Fish,  whose  nose  touches  Andromeda,  and 
westward  to  the  Western  Fish,  which  is  situated 
under  the  Great  Square  of  Pegasus.  The  extraor- 
dinary tendency  of  the  stars  of  Pisces  to  run  in 
streaming  lines  has  been  spoken  of  in  Chapter  III. 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

The  other  stars  and  constellations  now  visible  are 
already  familiar  to  us.  But  we  turn  again  for  a 
moment  to  Polaris,  which,  being  practically  fixed  in 
the  sky,  can  be  seen  at  any  season.  I  have  referred 
to  the  fact  that  this  star  for  a  long  series  of  centuries 
has  been  a  universal  guide  to  all  the  inhabitants  of 
the  northern  hemisphere.  In  that  character  its  his- 
tory is  no  less  romantic  than  practically  important. 
One  of  the  deepest  impressions  of  my  childhood  was 
produced  by  an  acquaintance  with  a  remarkable  man 
who  at  that  time  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  most  won- 
derful traveller,  since  he  had  seen  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
the  Everglades  of  Florida,  the  Dismal  Swamp  of  Vir- 
ginia, and,  according  to  his  story  (which  no  boy 
would  doubt) ,  had  battled  with  alligators  and  tasted 
the  delights  of  vagabond  life  on  the  great  cotton 
plantations  of  the  South.  I  think  he  was  the  first 
who  ever  pointed  out  the  North  Star  to  me,  and  he 
fired  my  imagination  by  tales  of  its  connection  with 
the  escape  of  negro  slaves — escapes  in  which  he  pro- 
fessed to  have  played  a  part.  Many  long  winter 
evenings  he  sat  by  my  father's  fireside  and  fascinated 
his  hearers  with  narratives  of  his  adventures.  But 
nothing  interested  me  more  than  what  he  said  of  the 
slaves  following  the  lead  of  the  North  Star,  through 
the  darkness  of  tangled  swamps,  among  deadly  moc- 
casins and  lurking  alligators,  always  fixing  their  eyes 
upon  "the  star/'  falling  on  their  knees  to  it  as 
their  only  friend  and  guide.  Trembling  at  the  bay 
of  pursuing  bloodhounds,  they  would  lie  in  conceal - 

116 


EVENING   SKY  AT  THE   WINTER   SOLSTICE 

ment  during  the  daylight  hours,  and  as  soon  as  night 
came  on  would  look  for  their  celestial  sentinel,  and 
follow  unquestioningly  its  indication  of  the  way  to 
freedom.  However  apocryphal  these  stories  may 
have  been,  they  certainly  had  a  basis  of  truth,  and 
the  impressions  then  produced  upon  my  mind  con- 
cerning the  character  of  Polaris  as  the  sure  friend  of 
those  who  are  lost  and  in  trouble  have  remained  un- 
dimmed  in  my  memory.  What  a  triumph  will  be 
that  of  the  man  who  first  visits  the  north  pole  by 
night,  and  sees  that  star  gleaming  directly  over  his 
head,  while  all  the  constellations  solemnly  circle  about 
it,  unresting  and  unsetting! 


THE    PLANETS 

THE  beginner  will  often  be  troubled  in  his  obser- 
vations by  the  presence  in  some  constellation 
of  a  brilliant  object  which  outshines  all  of  the  stars 
shown  in  his  charts,  and  is  plainly  an  interloper  among 
them.  He  may  at  once  set  the  stranger  down  for 
one  of  the  planets — it  may  be  Jupiter,  Saturn,  Mars, 
or  Venus,  or  possibly,  if  close  to  the  horizon,  Mercury. 
Uranus  and  Neptune  will  not  disturb  his  equanimity, 
for  the  latter  is  never,  and  the  former  seldom,  visible 
to  the  naked  eye. 

Practice  will  quickly  enable  him  to  distinguish  a 
planet  from  the  true  stars,  both  by  its  greater  appar- 
ent size  and  by  the  quality  of  its  light.  The  planets 
do  not  twinkle  as  do  the  stars.  This  arises  from  the 
fact  that  they  present  measurable  disks  which  reflect 
the  sunlight,  but  do  not  shine  with  a  light  of  their 
own.  No  star  shows  a  real  disk,  even  when  viewed 
with  a  powerful  telescope.  The  stars  are  mere 
points,  and  the  larger  and  better  the  telescope  the 
smaller  they  appear.  This  is  not  to  say  that  they 
do  not  look  brighter  in  a  telescope,  for  the  larger  stars 
are  dazzling  when  viewed  with  a  glass  of  large  aper- 

118 


THE    PLANETS 

ture;  but  they  are  so  distant  that  the  mightiest  of 
telescopes  cannot  reveal  their  real  surfaces  in  the 
form  of  disks.  The  apparent  disks  which  they  pre- 
sent are  due  entirely  to  irradiation,  and  the  higher 
the  power  the  smaller  these  spurious  disks  appear. 

Another  way  in  which  the  beginner  may  identify 
a  planet  is  by  observing  its  motion.  No  planet  re- 
mains long  in  the  same  position  with  regard  to  neigh- 
boring stars.  They  all  travel,  at  varying  rates,  from 
west  to  east  through  the  sky.  But  this  motion  is 
not  constant,  and  at  times  it  is  reversed.  In  the 
cases  of  Mars,  Jupiter,  and  Saturn  the  reversal  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  when  they  are  in  opposition  to  the 
sun  the  earth,  being  nearer  the  sun  than  they  are, 
outfoots  them  in  eastward  motion,  so  that  they  ap- 
pear for  a  time  to  move  backward  on  their  orbits. 
It  is  like  a  fast  train  passing  a  slow  one  on  a  parallel 
track;  to  an  observer  on  the  fast  train  the  slow  one 
seems  to  be  either  standing  still  or  moving  back- 
ward. But  Mercury  and  Venus,  being  nearer  the 
sun  than  the  earth  is,  have  at  times  a  backward 
motion  which  is  real.  Let  us  consider  them  only 
when  they  appear  as  "evening  stars."  From  "su- 
perior conjunction"  (i.  e.,  the  point  occupied  by  the 
planet  when  it  is  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  sun 
from  the  earth)  to  "greatest  eastern  elongation" 
(greatest  apparent  distance  from  the  sun  in  the 
evening  sky)  both  Mercury  and  Venus  move  east- 
ward among  the  stars;  from  "greatest  eastern 
elongation"  to  "inferior  conjunction"  (i.e.,  the 

119 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

point  occupied  by  the  planet  when  it  is  between  the 
earth  and  the  sun)  they  move  westward  among  the 
stars,  or,  in  other  words,  approach  the  sun. 

The  motions  of  Mercury  and  Venus  are  compara- 
tively swift,  particularly  that  of  the  former.  Few 
persons  have  ever  seen  Mercury,  because  of  its  near- 
ness to  the  sun.  When  well  seen  it  is  brighter  than 
any  first-magnitude  star.  As  an  "evening  star"  it 
appears  in  the  west  immediately  after  sunset  about 
once  every  four  months  (more  precisely  once  every 
116  days).  It  remains  within  view  about  twenty 
days,  but  can  be  easily  distinguished  only  for  a  week 
or  so  when  it  is  nearest  eastern  elongation.  Every 
almanac  gives  the  dates  of  its  appearances. 

Venus,  being  farther  from  the  sun,  travels  less  rapid- 
ly. It  reappears  in  the  evening  sky  once  in  every  584 
days,  gradually  withdrawing  from  the  sun,  and  growing 
brighter  until  it  reaches  greatest  eastern  elongation, 
which  may  be  as  much  as  forty-seven  degrees  from  the 
sun,  after  which  it  approaches  the  sun,  still  becoming 
brighter  for  several  weeks,  until  at  last  it  is  lost  in 
the  glare  of  the  sunlight.  During  its  excursions  in 
the  evening  sky  (and  the  same  is  true  of  its  morning 
apparitions),  Venus  becomes  the  most  brilliant  ob- 
ject in  the  starry  heavens,  so  brilliant,  in  fact,  that 
many  persons  can  hardly  be  persuaded  that  it  is  not 
an  artificial  light,  or  some  extraordinary  phenomenon 
in  space.  In  the  telescope  it  shows  (as  does  Mercury, 
also)  phases  like  those  of  the  moon,  and  when  it  is 
seen  in  the  form  of  a  narrow  crescent  it  becomes  one 

120 


THE    PLANETS 

of  the  most  charming  objects  imaginable.  For  more 
details  about  Mercury,  Venus,  and  the  other  planets, 
the  reader  may  consult  Astronomy  with  the  Naked 
Eye. 

Mars,  Jupiter,  and  Saturn  are  more  likely  to  cause 
confusion  to  the  beginner  by  getting  " mixed  up" 
with  the  stars  of  the  constellations  he  is  studying, 
because  they  travel  all  round  the  sky,  and  may  ap- 
pear in  turn  in  each  of  the  zodiacal  constellations  at 
any  hour  of  the  night.  The  zodiacal  constellations 
are  twelve  in  number — Aries,  Taurus,  Gemini,  Cancer, 
Leo,  Virgo,  Libra,  Scorpio,  Sagittarius,  Capricornus, 
Aquarius,  and  Pisces — and  they  lie  in  succession  along 
the  course  of  the  ecliptic. 

Mars  is  not  remarkably  brilliant  except  when  it  is 
in  opposition  to  the  sun,  which  happens  once  every 
780  days;  but  some  of  the  oppositions  are  much 
more  important  than  the  average,  because  they 
occur  when  Mars  is  relatively  near  the  earth.  This 
planet  is  always  distinguishable  by  its  ruddy  color. 
In  case  it  is  mistaken  for  a  star,  the  error  can  be 
corrected  by  watching  it  for  a  few  successive  nights, 
when  its  motion  will  become  clearly  apparent.  On 
the  average  it  moves  eastward  about  half  a  degree 
per  day. 

Jupiter,  always  very  conspicuous  when  in  view, 
outshines  even  Sirius,  though  lacking  the  scintillation 
characteristic  of  that  great  star.  Its  light  has  a 
slightly  yellowish  tint,  and  is  remarkably  steady. 
Since  it  requires  nearly  twelve  years  to  make  a  revo- 

121 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

lution  round  the  sky,  Jupiter's  motion  is  not  imme- 
diately apparent.  It  remains  for  a  long  time  in  any 
constellation  in  which  it  may  be  found,  travelling 
eastward,  on  the  average,  about  5'  of  arc,  or  one- 
sixth  of  the  apparent  diameter  of  the  moon,  per  day. 
In  a  month  it  moves  about  two  and  a  half  degrees. 

Saturn  is  yet  more  deliberate  in  its  movements. 
,  Requiring  almost  thirty  years  for  a  revolution,  it  may 
remain  more  than  two  years  in  the  same  constella- 
tion, and  its  real  motion  will  only  become  evident 
upon  careful  observation  continued  for  several  weeks. 

The  best  way  to  recognize  the  planets  with  cer- 
tainty is  to  look  up  their  positions  with  the  aid  of 
the  American  Ephemeris  and  Nautical  Almanac,  pub- 
lished annually  by  the  Government  at  Washington. 
There  the  right  ascensions  and  declinations  of  all  the 
planets  are  given  for  any  time  of  the  year.  Having 
these,  you  may  find  on  the  large-scale  charts  the 
approximate  place  of  the  planet  sought,  and,  if  you 
choose,  indicate  its  position  with  a  pencil-mark. 

The  study  of  the  planets,  even  without  telescopic 
aid,  has  a  charm  hardly  less  potent  than  that  of  the 
stars.  Mercury  is  fascinating  because  of  the  difficulty 
of  seeing  him  in  the  light  of  twilight  or  dawn.  The 
ancients  were  greatly  puzzled  by  his  dodges,  and  some 
of  them  thought  that  he  was  a  double  personality, 
and  gave  him  two  names,  one  for  his  morning  and 
the  other  for  his  evening  apparitions.  With  the 
Egyptians  he  was  respectively  Set  and  Horus,  and 
**  with  the  Greeks  Apollo  and  Hermes.  The  same  was 

122 


THE    PLANETS 

true  of  Venus,  who  was  Phosphorus  in  the  morning  y 
and  Hesperus  in  the  evening. 

Venus,  after  she  passes  the  half -moon  phase,  be- 
comes so  bright  that  she  simply  overpowers  all  stars 
in  her  neighborhood.  Her  splendor  seems  almost 
supernatural,  and  she  has  frequently  been  seen  at 
high  noon,  a  point  of  intense  light  burning  in  the 
blue  sky. 

Jupiter's  entrance  into  any  constellation  imme- 
diately alters  its  familiar  aspect,  and  he  becomes  its 
unquestioned  leader,  and  remains  such  until  his  slow 
eastward  motion  carries  him  on  to  reign  in  another 
quarter  of  the  firmament.  He  is  never  more  im- 
pressive than  when,  in  consequence  of  the  annual 
revolution  of  the  heavens,  he  rises  late  some  night 
and  takes  the  lingering  star-gazer  by  surprise.  Then 
all  the  stellar  hosts  that  for  hours  have  held  the 
watcher  spellbound  cease  their  incantation  in  the 
presence  of  this  great  counter-charmer,  to  whose 
power  they,  too,  seem  to  bow.  Although  Venus  at 
her  brightest  outshines  Jupiter,  she  lacks  a  certain 
majesty  which  he  alone  possesses.  His  light  is  calm, 
steady,  insistent,  commanding.  He  does  not  look 
like  a  star,  but  rather  a  superstar.  If  he  beams  at 
all,  it  is  not  the  hurried  scintillation  of  the  twinkling 
multitude  around  him.  Rising  through  a  moisture- 
laden  and  wind-swept  sky,  where  the  stars  are  like 
pulsating  atoms,  shaken  apart  and  scattered  in  tin- 
sel showers  of  rainbow  sparks,  he  glows  unflickering, 
recognizing  the  aerial  tumult  only  by  a  deepening  of 

123 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

color  which  makes  him  the  more  imposing.  As  he 
mounts  the  heights  of  the  sky  he  gleams  ever  brighter 
and  ever  steadier,  and,  casting  off  the  tarnish  of  the 
horizon,  his  supereminent  light  glows  with  a  splendor 
that  is  amazing.  If  you  have  an  eye  that  can  detect 
one  or  two  of  Jupiter's  moons  hiding  close  in  his  rays, 
you  may  boast  of  your  powers  of  vision,  for  that  feat 
has  been  accomplished  by  very  few  human  beings. 
Humboldt  heard  of  a  German  "master  tailor"  who 
could  do  it.  There  are  a  few  other  cases  on  record. 
Most  persons  cannot  see  them  even  with  the  aid  of  a 
strong  opera-glass.  There  is  a  superstition  that  they 
can  be  seen  with  a  looking-glass,  but  it  is  only  ghostly 
reflections  that  are  thus  perceived — perhaps  as  real 
as  any  other  ghosts. 

Saturn,  although  as  bright  as  a  first-magnitude 
star,  is  somewhat  disappointing  as  a  naked-eye  ob- 
ject, owing  to  the  relative  dulness  of  its  light.  Like 
Jupiter,  it  shines  with  great  steadiness,  and  a  prac- 
tised eye  could  not  mistake  it  for  a  fixed  star.  But 
its  appearance  without  a  telescope  gives  no  hint  of 
the  unearthly  beauty  with  which  it  astonishes  the 
beholder  when  its  rings  are  rendered  visible.  Not 
to  have  seen  those  rings  at  least  once  in  a  life- 
time, as  they  appear  in  a  powerful  telescope,  is  to 
have  missed  one  of  the  supreme  spectacles  of  cre- 
ation. 

Mars  is  never  very  brilliant  except  during  favor- 
able oppositions,  when,  approaching  within  less  than 
40,000,000  miles  of  the  earth,  it  hangs  in  the  mid- 
124 


THE    PLANETS 

night  sky,  gleaming  red  like  a  portent  of  disaster. 
The  aspect  of  Mars  at  such  times  is  truly  alarming. 
It  is  surprising  to  see  what  a  quantity  of  stained  sun- 
light a  world  only  about  four  thousand  miles  in  diam- 
eter is  able  to  reflect  across  so  vast  a  gap  of  space. 
The  reason  why  the  ancients  connected  Mars  with 
the  god  of  war  is  plain  enough  when  he  puts  on  his 
color. 

Close  conjunctions  of  the  bright  planets  are  ex- 
ceedingly interesting  phenomena.  Mars  and  Jupiter 
seen  together  when  the  former  is  near  one  of  its 
favorable  oppositions  make  a  scene  of  strange  beauty. 
After  long  intervals  of  time  several  of  these  great 
planets  sometimes  assemble  in  the  same  quarter,  and 
such  conjunctions  are  always  memorable  occurrences. 
The  stars  are  forgotten  in  the  presence  of  this  new 
constellation,  and  yet  the  tiniest  of  the  sparks  that 
seems  to  hide  its  light  in  the  depths  beyond  would 
master  these  great  planets  and  make  gravitational 
slaves  of  them,  as  the  sun  does. 

The  planets  are  so  conspicuous  to  our  eyes,  because 
of  their  relative  nearness,  that  it  is  not  easy  for  the 
beginner  in  such  studies  to  realize  how  insignificant 
they  actually  are.  But  suppose  that  one  could  fly 
like  a  spirit  away  from  the  earth  and  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  sun,  out  into  the  deeps  of  interstellar 
space.  As  he  moved  away  the  planets  would  seem 
to  be  swallowed  up,  one  after  the  other,  in  the  solar 
rays.  First  Mercury  would  disappear,  as  if  it  had 
fallen  into  the  sun.  It  would  be  just  like  two  neigh- 
o  125 


ROUND    THE    YEAR   WITH    THE    STARS 

boring  lights  which  appear  to  draw  together  and 
blend  into  one  as  the  observer  travels  away  from 
them,  the  greater  swallowing  the  less.  Then  brilliant 
Venus  would  go,  plunging  into  the  great  solar  fur- 
nace, to  be  seen  no  more.  Next  the  earth  would  fol- 
low in  the  perspective  holocaust.  Mars  would  seem 
to  draw  nearer  until  he,  too,  disappeared;  Jupiter 
would  follow;  then  Saturn;  then  Uranus,  and  finally 
Neptune.  When  the  last  planet  was  gone  the  sun 
would  be  seen  shining  alone,  unattended,  as  if  he 
had  never  had  any  planets.  Thus  it  may  be  with  the 
stars;  most  of  them  may  have  systems  of  planets 
circling  round  them,  but  at  our  distance  these  planets 
are  concealed  in  the  rays  of  their  primaries. 

One  would  not  need  to  go  so  far  away  as  the  stars 
in  order  to  see  the  sun  apparently  swallow  his  planets, 
as  Saturn  was  fabled  to  have  swallowed  his  children. 
But  as  one  approached  the  stellar  region,  the  sun 
itself  would  become  a  mere  star.  Fainter  and  fainter 
it  appears,  glimmering  and  twinkling,  deprived  of  its 
dominance,  stripped  of  its  splendor,  a  pitiful  spark 
now  instead  of  an  all-ruling  and  blinding  maker  of 
daylight,  until  at  last  the  far  voyager  from  the  earth, 
gazing  with  his  soul  in  his  eyes,  straining  his  vision 
to  the  utmost  to  hold  that  glinting  point  clear  of  its 
fellows,  for  it  is  his  sun,  suddenly,  as  a  momentary 
film  blurs  his  sight,  loses  it,  and  henceforth  seek  as 
he  may  among  the  countless  hosts  that  spangle  the 

P lament,   he  will  never  again  find   the  day-star 
er  whose  cheery  beams  he  was  born!     Hidden  in 
126 


THE    PLANETS 

the  Milky  Way,  one  would  have  no  more  chance  of 
recognizing  the  sun  than  of  finding  a  particular 
grain  of  sand  on  the  sea- shore.  Man  physical  is  as  in- 
significant as  the  rock  he  dwells  on  and  as  the  eye- 
searing  orb  that  lights  him  at  his  daily  work;  but 
man  spiritual  is  as  great  as  the  universe — and  greater! 


APPENDIX 


URANOGRAPHY    OR    HEAVENLY    DESCRIPTION    OP    THE 
CHURCHMEN 

MANY  readers  may  be  interested  in  seeing  a  list 
of  the  names  given  to  the  constellations  when, 
as  mentioned  in  the  Introduction,  the  starry  sky  was 
"Christianized."  In  the  seventeenth  century  Julius 
Schillerius  put  forth  his  Cesium  Stellatum  Christianum, 
and  Jacobus  Bartschius  a  celestial  globe,  in  which  all 
of  the  well-known  constellations  received  new  and 
strictly  orthodox  names.  Unfortunately  the  sponsors 
for  these  names  did  not  always  agree  in  their  choice, 
and  a  certain  Harsdorfius  (who  may  have  been  the 
poet  Philip  Harsdoerfer,  born  at  Nuremberg  in  1607) 
added  to  the  confusion  by  further  varying  the  selec- 
tion. Wilhelm  Schickard  also  introduced  variations. 
In  the  following  list  the  first  of  the  "  Christian " 
names  given  is  that  chosen  by  Schillerius,  while  their 
variants  are  due  to  either  Harsdorfius,  Schickard,  or 
Bartschius : 

ARIES — St.  Peter — Abraham's  Ram. 
TAURUS — St.  Andrew — The  Burnt  Sacrifice. 
GEMINI — St.  James  the  Elder — Jacob  and  Esau. 
CANCER — St.  John  the  Evangelist. 

129 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 

LEO — St.  Thomas — The  Lion  of  Judah.     (Observe  that  the 
variants  are  generally  more  imaginative.) 

VIRGO — St.  James  the  Younger — The  Virgin  Mary. 

LIBRA — St.  Philip — Belshazzar's  Balances. 

SCORPIO — St.  Bartholomew. 

SAGITTARIUS — St.  Matthew — Ishmael. 

CAPRICORNUS — St.  Simon. 

AQUARIUS — St.  Jude — Naaman. 

PISCES— St.  Mathias— The  Gospel  Fishes. 

URSA  MINOR — St.    Michael — One    of    Elisha's    Bears — The 
Wagon  of  Joseph. 

URSA  MAJOR — St.  Peter's  Fishing-boat — Elisha's  other  Bear 
—The  Chariot  of  Elias. 

DRACO — The   Innocents — The   Dragon   Infernal.     (Quite   a 
difference  of  opinion.) 

BOOTES — St.  Sylvester — Nimrod. 

COMA  BERENICES — The  Scourge  of  Christ — Absalom's  Hair 
— Samson's  Hair. 

CORONA  BOREALIS — The  Crown  of  Thorns — Queen  Esther's 
Crown. 

HERCULES — The  Three  Wise  Men  of  the  East — Samson. 

LYRA — The  Saviour's  Manger — David's  Harp. 

CYGNUS — The  Cross  of  Calvary. 

CASSIOPEIA — St.  Mary  Magdalen — Bathsheba. 

CEPHEUS — St.  Stephen — Solomon.     (Solomon  seems  a  bet- 
ter choice.) 

PERSEUS  WITH  MEDUSA'S  HEAD — David  with  the  Head  of 
Goliath— St.  Paul. 

ANDROMEDA — The  Holy  Sepulchre — Abigail.     (The  last  re- 
verses Andromeda's  romance  with  a  vengeance.) 

AURIGA — Jacob — St.  Jerome. 

OPHIUCHUS  ET  SERPENS — St.   Benedict — St.   Paul  and  the 
Viper.     (The  latter  very  pat.) 

SAGITTA — The  Lance  of  Calvary — Jonathan's  Arrow. 

AQUILA — St.  Katharine — The  Standard  of  Rome. 

DELPHINUS — The  Canaanitish  Woman's  Pitcher — Leviathan. 

EQUULEUS — The  Mystic  Rose. 

PEGASUS — St.  Gabriel — Jeremiah's  King  of  Babylon. 

130 


APPENDIX 

TRIANGULUM — St.  Peter's  Mitre — Emblem  of  the  Trinity. 
CETUS — Sts.  Joachim  and  Anna — Jonah's  Whale. 
ERIDANUS — The    Red    Sea    with   Moses    Crossing    It — The 

Brook  of  Cedron. 

ORION — St.  Joseph — Joshua.     (The  last  a  good  choice.) 
LEPUS — Gideon's  Fleece. 
CANIS  MAJOR — Tobias's  Dog — St.  David. 
CANIS  MINOR — The  Paschal  Lamb. 
ARGO  NAVIS — Noah's  Ark.     (Inevitable!) 
HYDRA — The  River  Jordan. 

CRATER  (together  with  Corvus) — The  Ark  of  the  Covenant. 
CORVUS  (according  to  Schickard) — Elias's  Crow. 
CENTAURUS — Abraham  and  Isaac. 
LUPUS — Jacob. 
ARA — The  Altar  of  Incense. 

CORONA  AUSTRALIS — David's  Crown — Solomon's  Crown. 
PISCIS  AUSTRINUS — The  Widow's  Meal  Barrel — St.  Peter's 

Fish  with  Money  in  Its  Mouth. 
G*us      7 
PHCENIX) 
INDUS ) 
PAVO  {• 
APUS  ) 

CHAMELEON       j-  — Eve. 
PISCIS  VOLANS  ) 
TRIANGULUM   AUSTRALE — The   Cross   of  Christ.     (At   that 

time  the  Southern  Cross  seems  not  to  have  been  known.) 
DORADO  ) 

TOUCAN  >  — St.  Raphael. 
HYDRUS  ) 

The  southern  constellations,  Grus,  Phoenix,  Indus, 
Pavo,  Apus,  Chameleon,  Piscis  Volans,  Triangulum 
Australe,  Dorado,  Toucan,  and  Hydrus,  were  all 
named  by  Bayer  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  so  that  the  revisers  were  not  upsetting  any 
antique  legends  in  giving  them  more  sacred  names. 


ROUND    THE    YEAR  WITH    THE    STARS 

LETTERS     OF     THE     GREEK  ALPHABET     EMPLOYED     IN 
URANOGRAPHY 

a  — Alpha  v  — Nu 

13—  Beta  f  —  Xi 

y  — Gamma  o  — Omicron 

8  —Delta  TT  —Pi 

c  — Epsilon  p  — Rho 

£  — Zeta  cr  — Sigma 

f]  —Eta  T  — Tau 

0  — Theta  v  — Upsilon 

1  — Iota  <f)  — Phi 
K  — Kappa  X  — Chi 
X  — Lambda  $  — Psi 

//,  — Mu  a)  — Omega 


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IV 


CHART     X POLAR     CONSTELLATIONS    FROM     XVIII     H.    TO    VI    H. 


STAR 


PRON  U  N  CI  ATION      OF 
AND      CONSTELLATION      NAMES 


Achernar  (a-ker-nar) 
Albireo  (al-bi;re-6) 
Alcyone  (al-si-o-ne) 
Aldebaran  (al-deb-ar-an) 
Algenib  (al-ge"n-ib) 
Algenubi  (al-gen-u-bl) 
Algieba  (al-je-ba) 
Algol  (al-gpl) 
Algorab  (al-go-rab) 
Alioth  (al-i-Sth)      x 
Alkalurops  (al-ka-lu-rops) 
Alnilam  (al-m-Jam) 
Alnitah  (al-m-tah) 
Almaack  (al-ma-ack) 
Alphacca  (al-fak-ka) 
Alphard  (al-fard) 
Alpheratz  (al-fe-ratz) 
Alrischa  (al-ri-sha) 
Alrucaba  (a1-ru-ca'-ba)v 
Altair  (al-tar'or  al-ta-ir) 
Aludra  (a-Iu-dra') 
Andromeda  (an-drom-e-da) 
Antares  (an-ta-rez) 
Antinous  (an-tin-o-us) 
Aquarius  (a-kwa-ri-us) 
Aquila  (ak-wi-la) 
Arcturus  (ark-tu-rus)    ^ 
Argo  Navis  (ar-go^na-vis) 
Aries  (a:rez  qr  a-ri-es) 
Auriga  (aw-ri-ga) 

Baten  Kaitos  (ba'-ten  kltos) 
Bellatrix  (bel-la-tnx) 
Benetnasch  (be-net-nasch) 
Betelgeuse  (bet-el-gooz  or  bet-cl-gez) 
Bootes  (bo-o-tez) 


Camelopardalis  (cam-e1-6-par-da-_lis) 

Canes  Venatici^ca-nez^ ven-at-I-si) 

Canis  Major  (ca-nis  major) 

Canis  Minor  (ca-nis  minor) 

Canopus  (can-o-pus) 

Capella  (ca-pel-la) 

Caph  (kaff) 

Capricornus  (cap-rl-k6r-nus) 

Cassiopeia  (cas-sT-o-pt-ya). 

Centaurus  (cen-tdw-rus) 

Cepheus  (se-fe-us  or  se-fus) 

Cetus  (se-tus)  f  , 

Coma  Berenices  (coma  beV-e-ni-ses) 

Corona    Borealis    (co-ro-na  bo-re' 

lis) 

Corvus  (c6r-vus) 
Crater  (cra,-ter)    • 
Cygnus  (sig-nus) 

Delphinus  (del-fi-nus) 
Deneb  (den-eb), 
Denebola  (de-neb-o-la) 
Draco  (dra-co) 
Dubhe  (dub-he) 

Eltanin  (el-ta-nin) 
Equuleus  (e-kw6o-le-us) 
Eridanus  (e-rid-a-nus) 

Fomalhaut  (f6-mal-hot) 
Fornax  (fo'r-naks) 

Gemini  (jem-i-ni) 
Giedi  (je-di) 
Gienah  (je-nah)^ 
Gomelza  (go-mel-za) 


141 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 


Hamal  (ham-al) 
Hercules  (her-ku-lez) 
Hyades  (hl-a-dez) 
Hydra  (hi-dra)- 

Lacerta  (Ia-s3r-ta) 
Leo  (le-6j 
Lepus  (le-pus) 
Libra  (H-bra) 
Lyra  (K-ra) 

Maia  (ma-ya) 
Marfak  (mar-fak) 
Markab  (ma'r-kab) 
Megrez  (me-grez^) 
Menkab  (men-kab) 
Menkalina  (men-ka-li-nah) 
Merope  (mer-6-pe) 
Mesarthim  ^me-sar-thim) 
Mintaka  (mm-tS-kft) 
Mira  (ml-ra) 
Mirach  (mi-rak) 
Mizar  (mi-zar) 
Monoceros  (m6-nos-er-os) 
Murzim  (mur-zlm) 

Ophiuchus/  (o-fi-u-kus) 
Orion  (6-ri-6n) 

Pegasus  (peg-a-sus) 

Perseus  (per-se-us  or  per-sus) 

Pisces  (pis-s«z) 

Piscis  Austrinus  (pTs-sis  aus-tn-nus) 

Pleiades  (ple-ad-ez  or  pll-ad-ez) 

Polaris  (po-lar-'is) 

Pollux  (pol-lux) 


Porrima  (p5r-riUma) 
Prsesepe  (pre-se^-pe) 
Procyon  (pro-si-6n) 

Ras  Algethi  (ras  ai-ge-thi) 
Rastaban  (ras-ta-ban) 
Regulus/reg-ia-l^s) 
Rigel  (ri-gel  or  n-jel) 

v' 

Sagitta  (sa-jit-ta) 
Sagittarius  (sa-jit-ta-ri-us) 
Scheat  (she-at) 
Schedar  (shed-dar) 
Scorpio  (sk6r-pi-o) 

Scutum  Sobieskii  (sku-tum  so-bi-es-ki-i) 
Serpens  Jser-pens) 
Sirius  (sir,-i-us) 
Spica  (spi-ka) 

Taurus  (tau-rus) 
Thuban  (thu-ban) 
Triangulum  (tri-an-gu-lu'm) 

Ursa  Major  (ur-sa  m^-jor) 
Ursa  Minor  (ur-sa  ml-nor) 

Vega  (ve-ga)       ^        /    v  y     v 
Vindemiatrix  (vin-de-mi-a-trix) 
Virgo  (vef-go) 
Vulpecula  (vul-pek-u-la) 

Wesen  (wa-zen) 

Zavijava  (za-vi-ja-vah)  ^    ^ 

Zubenelgenubi  (zu-ben-el-jen-u-bi) 
Zubeneschemali  (zu-ben-es-she-rna-li) 


INDEX 


"A,"  the  letter,  108. 

Achernar,  107. 

Adhara,  100. 

Afternoon  of  the  year,  72. 

Albireo,  64. 

AlChiba,  33. 

Alcor,  41. 

Alcyone,  no. 

Aldebaran,  107  et  seq. 

Alderamin,  91. 

Aleph,  1 08. 

Alfirk,  92. 

Algedi,  78. 

Algenib,  86. 

Algieba,  36. 

Algol,  86. 

Algorab,  33. 

Al  Hiba,  33. 

Alioth,  41. 

Allen,  R.  H.,  quoted,  41,  57, 

70,  78,  101,  102. 
Almaack,  82. 
Alnilam,  102. 
Alnitah,  102. 
Alpha  Andromedae ,  12,81. 

Aquarii,  77. 

Aquilae,  65. 

Arietis,  83. 

Aurigae,  in. 

Bootes,  67. 

Canis  Majoris,  94. 

Canis  Minoris,  113. 

Capricorni,  78. 

Cassiopeiae,  88. 

Centauri,  65. 

Cephei,  91. 


64, 


Ceti,  114. 

Corvi,  33. 

Cygni,  63. 

Draconis,  45,  48. 

Geminorum,  113. 

Herculis,  59. 

Hydras,  35. 

Leonis,  35. 

Librae,  70. 

Lyrae,  48,  61. 

Orionis,  104. 

Pegasi,  81. 

Piscis  Austrinus,  75. 

Piscium,  115. 

Scorpii,  54. 

Serpentis,  57. 

Tauri,  107. 

Ursae  Majoris,  40. 

Ursae  Minoris,  46. 

Virginis,  29. 
Alphard,  34. 
Alpheratz,  12,  81. 
Al  Rischa,  115. 
Altair,  65. 
Aludra,  100. 

American  Ephemeris,  122. 
Andromedae,  12,  81. 
Antares,  54. 
Antinous,  66. 
Aonian  Dragon.  34. 
Aquarius,  77  et  seq. 
Aquila,  65. 
Aratus,  quoted,  30. 
Arctophilax,  68. 
Arcturus,  43,  67  et  seq. 
Argonautic  Expedition,  34. 


143 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 


Aries,  83,  84. 

Auriga,  in. 

Autumnal  Equinox,  71. 

BARNARD,  E.  E.,  quoted,  59. 

Beehive,  the,  38. 

Bell,  Dr.  Louis,  quoted,  90. 

Bellatrix,  105. 

Belt  of  Orion,  102,  105. 

Beta  Andromedae,  81. 

Aquarii,  78. 

Arietis,  84. 

Aurigae,  112. 

Canis  Majoris,  100. 

Canis  Minpris,  113. 

Capricorni ,  78. 

Cassiopeiae,  88. 

Cephei,  92. 

Ceti,  115. 

Corvi,  33. 

Cygni,  64. 

Geminorum,  113. 

Leonis,  37. 

Librae,  70. 

Lyras,  63. 

Orionis,  104. 

Pegasi,  81. 

Scorpii,  55. 

Tauri,  109. 

Ursae  Majoris,  40. 

Ursae  Minoris,  46. 

Virginis,  32. 
Betelgeuse,  104. 
Bootes,  43,  69. 

CANCER,  38. 

Canes  Venatici,  42,  69. 

Canis  Major,  100. 

Canis  Minor,  113. 

Capella,  43,  in. 

Caph,  88. 

Capri cornus,  78. 

Carman,  Bliss,  quoted,  22. 

Cassiopeia,  47,  88. 

Castor,  113. 

Cephus,  91. 

Cetus,  114. 

Chair,  Cassiopeia's,  87. 

Cheops,  pyramid  of,  45. 


Christianization  of  sky,  12. 

Clerke,  Agnes  M.,  quoted,  in. 

Coma  Berenices,  38. 

Constellations,  their  uses,  12,  13. 

Cor  Caroli,  42. 

Cor  Hydrae,  34. 

Corona  Borealis,  66. 

Corvus,  32. 

Crater,  33. 

Crete,  discoveries  in,  62. 

Cupid's  Arrow,  80. 

Cygnus,  63. 

6  1  Cygni,  64. 

DABIH,  78. 

Dana,  R.  H.,  quoted,  77. 

Delphinus,  79. 

Delta  Andromedae,  81. 

Canis  Majoris,  100. 

Cassiopeiae,  47,  88. 

Corvi,  33. 

Onoms,  1  02. 

Sagittarii,  56. 

Serpenti  s,  57. 

Ursae  Majoris,  40. 

Virginis,  32. 
Demon  star,  86. 
Deneb,  63. 
Deneb  Kaitos,  115. 
Denebola,  37  et  seq. 
Dipper  in  Sagittarius,  56. 
Dippers,  the,  29. 
Discipline  in  the  sky,  9. 
Donati's  comet,  69. 
Draco,  44  et  seq. 
Dream  of  the  universe,  91. 
Dubhe,  41. 
Durchmusterungs,  12. 

ELTANIN,  46. 

Emerson  ,  R.  W.  ,  quoted  ,  2  2  ,  53  ,  6  1  , 
Epsilon  Canis  Majoris,  100. 
Bootes,  69. 


< 

Orionis,  102. 
Pegasi,  81. 
Serpentis,  57. 
Ursae  Majoris,  40. 
Virginis,  32. 


144 


INDEX 


Equator,  13. 
Equinoctial  colure,  88. 
Equinoctial  storms,  71. 
Equinoxes,  13. 
Eridanus,  106. 
Esculapius,  57. 
Eta  Cassiopeiae,  89. 

Canis  Majoris,  100. 
Eta  Tauri,  107. 
Expectancy  of  astronomers,  27. 

FEET  OF  URSA  MAJOR,  42. 
Field  of  the  nebulae,  32. 
Flammarion,  quoted,  108. 
Fomalhaut,  75. 
Furud,  100. 

GALILEO,  38. 

Gamma  Andromedae,  82. 

Aquarii,  78. 

Arietis,  84. 

Capricorni ,  79. 

Ceti,  114. 

Corvi,  33. 

Draconis,  46. 

Leonis,  36. 

Lyras,  63. 

Orionis,  105. 

Pegasi,  80. 

Virginis,  32. 
Gardens  of  the  sky,  72. 
Garnet  star,  92. 
Gateway  of  souls,  39. 
Gemini,  113. 
Gemma,  66. 
Gienah,  33. 
"God's  Eye,"  108. 
Gomeisa,  114. 
Great  Bear,  40. 
Great  Dipper,  40. 
Great  Square  of  Pegasus,  80. 
Great  Year,  Plato's,  62. 
Greenwich  of  the  sky,  14. 

HALLEY'S  COMET,  65. 
Hamal,  83. 

Hathor,  temple  of,  46. 
Hercules,  59. 
Hesperus,  123. 


Hexagon  of  Orion,  28. 
Hole  in  the  sky,  59. 
Horus,  122. 
Hyades,  108. 
Hydra,  34. 

INFLUENCE  of  the  stars,  10,  18, 
22,  27,  29,35,  39»  44,  53»  68» 
75,  93,  102,  no,  116. 

Isis,  97. 

ASON,  34. 
ob's  Coffin,  79. 
ob's  Star,  68. 
upiter,  i2i,  123. 

KAPPA  CASSIOPEIA,  90. 

Orionis,  105. 
Karnak,  46. 
Kochab,  49. 

LACONIAN  KEY,  87. 

Lambda  Ophiuchi,  57. 

Orionis,  105. 
Language  for  celestial  marvels, 

61. 
Learning  the  stars,  ease  of,  17; 

best  season  for,  93. 
Leo,  35. 
Lepus,  107. 

Lewis,  G.  C.,  quoted,  25,  97. 
Libra,  70. 

Lockyer,  Norman,  quoted,  97. 
Longfellow,  H.  W.,  quoted,  71. 
Lucky  stars,  77,  78. 
Lyra,  61. 


MAGELLAN  CLOUDS,  R.  H.  Dana 

on,  77. 
Marfik,  58. 
Markab,  81. 
Mars,  121,  124. 
Mazzaroth,  98. 
Medusa,  head  of,  86. 
Megrez,  41. 
Menkalina,  112. 
Menkar,  114. 
Merak,  41. 
Mercury,  122. 

145 


ROUND    THE    YEAR    WITH    THE    STARS 


Meridian,  13. 

Mesarthim,  84. 

Milky  Way,   17,   18,  27,  56,  64, 

72. 

Mintaka,  102. 
Mira,  114. 
Mirach,  81. 

Mirrors,  sky  views  by,   19. 
Mitchel,  Gen.  O.  M.,  55. 
Mizar,  41,  47. 
Morning  of  the  year,  21. 
Moses  and  the  Brazen  Serpent, 

Mukdim-al  Kitaf,  31. 
Murzim,  100. 
Mut,  temple  of,  46. 
Mystery  in  the  sky,  58. 
8  M.,  56. 

NAMES  OF  STARS  AND  TRAVEL- 
LERS, 76. 

Nautical  Almanac,  122. 
Nebulas,  in  Andromeda,  82. 

in  Canes  Venatici,  69. 

in  Lyra,  63. 

in  Ophiuchus,  58. 

in  Orion,  103. 

in  Sagittarius,  56. 

in  Virgo,  32. 
New  star  of  1901,  90. 
Northern  Cross,  63. 
Northern  Crown,  66. 
North  star,  46,  116. 
November  meteors,  37. 
Nu  Scorpii,  55. 

OMICRON  CETI,  114. 

Ophiuchus,  57. 

Orion,  101  et  seq. 

Orion  group  of  constellations,  40. 

PEARL,  THE,  66. 
Pegasus,  80. 
Perseus,  85. 
Phagd,  41. 
Phaeton,  84. 
Phosphorus,  123. 
Pi  Orionis,   105. 
Pisces,  85,  115. 


Piscis  Austrinus,  75. 
Planets,  the,  1 18 ;  apparent  swal- 
lowing by  sun,  125. 
Plato,  quoted,  39. 
Pleiades,  109  et  seq. 
Pointers,  the,  42. 
Polaris,  46,  116. 
Pole-stars,  succession  of,  48. 
Pollux,  113. 
Porrima,  32. 
Prassepe,  38. 

Precession  of  equinoxes,  47,  84. 
Procyon,  113  et  seq. 
Pulcherrima,  69. 

RAS  ALGETHI,  59  et  seq. 

Ras  Alhague,  57. 

Reflection,  sky  seen  by,  19; 
supposed  visibility  01  Jupi- 
ter's moons  by,  124. 

Regulus,  35  et  seq. 

Revelation  of  the  stars,  10. 

Revolution  of  the  pole,  48. 

Revolutions  of  the  heavens,  16. 

Rho  Ophiuchi,  58. 

Richter,  Jean  Paul,  quoted,  91. 

Rigel,  104. 

Right  Ascension,  13. 

Rising  stars,  attraction  of,  29. 

Royal  family  of  sky,  75. 

Royal  stars,  35. 

Ruchbah,  88. 

SADACHBIA,  78. 

Sadalmelik,  77. 

Sadalsuud,  78. 

Sagitta,  79. 

Sagittarius,  56. 

St.  Paul  and  the  viper,  57. 

Saiph,  105. 

Saturn,  122,  124. 

Scheat,  81. 

Schedar,  88. 

Scorpio,  55. 

Serpens,  57. 

Set,  122. 

Shakespeare,  quoted,  49,  80. 

Sheratan,  84. 

Shield  of  Orion,  105. 


[46 


INDEX 


Sickle,  the,  37. 

Sigma  Tauri,   109. 

Sirius,  94  et  seq. 

Smyth,  Admiral,  quoted,  32. 

Sobieski's  Shield,  57,  65. 

Solstices,  13. 

Sophocles,  quoted,  67. 

Southern  Cross,  R.  H.  Dana  on, 

Southern  Fish,  75. 
Spica,  29  et  seq. 
Star  colors,  44,  83,  89,  90. 
Star  magnitudes,  98. 
Streaming  of  stars,  81,  106. 
Struve  invents  star  color,  106. 
Summer  Solstice,  50. 
Sword-hand  of  Perseus,  86. 
Sword  of  Orion,  103. 

TENT,  the,  33. 
Theta  Orionis,  103. 
Theta  Tauri,  109. 
Three  Guides,  the,  88. 
Thuban,  45,  48. 
Toorus,  107. 

Tropic  of  Capricorn,  79;  of  Can- 
cer, 40. 
Tycho's  star,  90. 

URSA  MAJOR,  40. 
Ursa  Minor,  46. 
Uru-anna,  101. 


VEGA,  43,  61  et  seq. 
Venus,  120,  123. 
Vernal  Equinox,  21. 
Vindemiatrix,  31. 
Virgin,  origin  of  name,  30. 
Virgo,  29  et  seq. 
Vulpecula  et  Anser,  80. 

"  W,"  the  letter,  87. 
Wesen,  100. 
Whirlpool  nebula,  69. 
Whitney,  Prof.,  quoted,  78. 
Winter     heavens,     glories     of, 

93. 
Winter  Solstice,  93. 

"XM"    class    of    stars,   31,   64, 

104. 
Xavier  de  Maistre,  quoted,  89. 

YEAR,    various    beginnings    of, 
25  et  seq. 

ZETA  URS^E  MAJORIS,  40. 

Aquarii,  78. 

Canis  Majoris,  100. 

Herculis,  60. 

Orionis,  102,  106. 
Zodiac,  84. 
Zubeneschemali,  70. 
Zubenelgenubi,  70. 


THE    END 


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